


the colours in this world

by Themaagoo



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Anxiety, Depression, F/M, Fluff, Gay, Griffindor!red, M/M, Soulmate AU, Soulmate Colour AU, Soulmates, but kinda different, but not too much, but stuff does happen, colour, griffindor gold, griffindor red, griffindor!gold, hand holding, i think there's kind of plot, i'll try not to get too angsty, ill explain in the discription, mostly cute, original shipping, originalshipping - Freeform, precious metal shipping, slytherin green, slytherin silver, slytherin!green, slytherin!silver, small angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-14 21:31:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 23,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9204110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Themaagoo/pseuds/Themaagoo
Summary: an au where the colours you see in change depending on your moodwhen Red gets his hogwarts letter his world turns upside down andd he has absolutely no idea what to do with this new life that has been thrust upon him, he then meets green, the new slytherin everyone's talking about, and despite what everyone says, surely not all slytherins can be bad?





	1. arriving

The great hall was bright and colourful and the colours seemed to bounce off of the walls. The candles that floated above were almost painful to look at, and the flickering flames seemed to dance, taunting him in a way Red couldn’t explain. The vividness of the colours and the lively way they were splashed cross everything made him feel like he was trapped inside a giant abstract painting.

            Red knew these colours, even if it had taken a while to figure out. It often wasn’t easy to figure out what the different colours you were seeing meant, for one person happiness could be seen in blues and for another person those same shades could mean that they were sad or lonely, so unless you had previously figured out what the emotion was the colours really weren’t a good way to tell what kind of mood you were in. but these colours were all too familiar, they were the colours that he would see when he was waiting for test results and they were the colours he saw when he went to school for the first time, these colours meant he was nervous. Really nervous. He knew why he was nervous; it wasn’t unreasonable to be considering everything.

He looked around at the sea of people crowded around him, a never ending stream that slipped off in all sorts of directions, and even the blacks of the uniforms managed to seem flamboyant and glaring. He could tell by the expressions on their faces that he was not alone in the ocean of nerves that he felt like he was going to drown in, and the knowledge that he was not the only one scared or worried about everything that was happening comforted him somewhat, at least he wasn’t going to seem like an idiot because he was the only one who wasn’t sure of himself. Some of them were possibly even in the same situation as him. That situation of course being that until about two months ago he had had no idea that magic even existed.

            Two months ago was when Red’s world had been thrown into a whirlpool and pretty much been left to fend for itself. This was when he had first received his letter. It was when he found out that he was something people referred to as muggle-born, a wizard born into a non-magic family. At some point in his ancestry there had been a wizard, but he guessed it must have skipped a generation or two before he was born, so his parents had at first thought that the letter was a joke, and it wasn’t until one of the teachers had come personally to his house that he discovered who he was. So he had no one to talk to really, and no idea what to expect from this school.

He figured most people had grown up knowing about magic, practicing it from a young age. He was probably way behind everyone else; maybe they wouldn’t even want him here, what if he got sent home? What would he do then? He bet he would manage to make a fool of himself one way or another. He had heard some students talking on the way here, what if he got sorted into Slytherin? From what he had heard it seemed to be an evil house, although the idea seemed strange to him, surely not an entire house could be evil? _No_ , he told himself as the colours around him grew even more erratic, _there’s nothing to worry about_ , surely he was being ridiculous.

The colours calmed down somewhat, but they still seemed on edge, as though they could be spooked again at any second. He probably should have done some more reading of those books in the holidays like he had intended to, he reflected. Another part of him argued that it wasn’t his fault, the books had made little to no sense to him and without any one to interpret for him he had just given up on them entirely as any attempt to read them only reminded him how out of place he was going to be come this school year.

Shaking off his thoughts he tuned back in to the rest of the world. Around him the chatter of the students had grown quiet and somehow this silence was even more daunting than the loud talking that had surrounded him earlier. In front of him there was a long table with who he assumed was the teachers sat all along it, he looked down it and recognised the teacher that had come to his house, the teacher didn’t notice him, and he wasn’t surprised. He doubted the visit had stuck in their memory, it was probably just one of many he had to do every year. Their name had been long something or other. Red had never been great with names.

His gaze continued down the table, there were an assortment of types there, and at last his gaze came to rest on the person that everyone was focused on. He assumed it was the headmaster, they seemed to carry themselves with an air of grace and purpose, as he was watching them they stood up and begun to speak. He wasn’t entirely sure what they were saying, and it was possibly because he couldn’t really understand anything magic related, but more likely because the silence was deafening to him and the colours seemed to scream louder with every word. Eventually the headmaster sat down and another stood up and a stool was presented with a hat sat on top of it. The new teacher started speaking, and somehow their soft tones carried easier to my ears, soothing and calm.

            “This is the beginning of many school years for some of you, and we can only hope that they shall be happy ones, but first we must sort you into a house. This house shall determine many things for you, and shall be based on you personally, I will call your name one by one and you shall come sit on this stool.” The teacher stood perfectly still and seemed to wait for something, curious, Red looked around, wondering what was about to happen when suddenly the hat began to sing.

 

            Such a long time ago this school was made,

            By far more than just shovel or spade,

            Forged through frendships love and hate,

            Remember this as you walk through the gate

 

            Each founding parent’s pride was so strong,

            They all believed each other to be wrong,

            Each one valued students so differently,

            That not a single one could agree

 

            Salazar thought that each one should be pure,

            He thought that the blood was the difference for sure,

            He thought only the cunning and sly should be let in,

            And so the house he founded was Slytherin

           

            Godric however thought he should let in the brave,

            He thought it was the ones with courage he should save,

            They had the heart of a lion and charged like a boar,

            And so the house he founded was Griffindor

 

            Rowena wanted each of her pupils to be smart,

            She thought that they needed intelligence rather than heart,

            She and her students had knowledge and hungered for more,

            And so the house she founded was Ravenclaw

 

            Helga however cared not for brains, brawn nor blood

            She thought as long as her students were kind and good,

            Then surely their loyalty should be enough,

            And so the house she founded was Hufflepuff

 

 

            And so today will be the claiming day

            And where you belong I’ll say

            If you’re cunning, loyal, brave or smart,

            Your new house is where you’ll make your start.

           

And as suddenly as it had started the hat’s song was over, and the hall burst into applause, but red stood there, too dumbfounded to move, but then again it was a school that taught wizards and witches, so a singing hat really should have been the minimum level of weird that he was expecting. As the cheers and whispers died down into silence once more the teacher by the hat pulled a scroll out of their robe and began to read off of it.

            “Silver Gin,” they read off and a red haired student swaggered out in front of the crowd, a confident smirk on their face. Silver sat on the stool and the teacher placed the hat on their head, the hat took no time deciding this one and as soon as it settled down it came to a decision.

            “Slytherin!” shouted the hat for the whole room to hear, and loud applause erupted from the far end of the hall where students sat clothed in green.

            The rest of the list passes similarly, and it’s a blur of names as each student is called out. As each name is called Red’s nerves grow, and he worries more and more that his presence there is a mistake.

            What if his name never gets called out and he’s left standing there, and then they realise that they have to send him home?

            The colours are so very bright.

            “Red Tottori”

            For a moment the name doesn’t even register and Red can feel everyone waiting for him, the teacher reads it out again and it finally clicks that they’re talking about him, his legs shake and he steps up in front of everyone else and he can her murmurs of conversations that he’s sure must be about him. He almost collapses when he gets to the stool, yet somehow manages to stay on it despite the fact that gravity seems to have tripled it’s pull. He feels the hat settle down on his head and hears more whispering, this time it seems to be coming from the hat, whispering to him and suddenly the hat is shouting out a word a single word for everyone to hear, and red’s heart is pounding so hard in his ears that he barely hears it.

            “Griffindor!”

            Cheers erupt from the Griffindor table, and Red’s legs are shaking as he stands up, but in a way he’s also relieved, glad to finally be sorted into a house to belong somewhere in a sense, and the colours die down to be much softer and pleasant to look at even.

            Red walks closer to the table and as he gets nearer a question dawns in his mind, where on earth should he sit? The table looks crowded, but he can see seats dotted around, however everyone seems to have already made friends, and he doesn’t want to intrude on that, he looks around desperately for a seat separate from other people, but he can’t find anywhere, thankfully he is saved from further looking by a boy with black hair sat relatively close to him.

            “Over here!” The boy yells, and red takes a moment to make sure that the boy with the messy jet-black hair is talking to him before smiling gratefully and taking a seat.

            A few minutes later the sorting is over, and a banquet appears in front of them, piping hot and drool worthy.

            “The name’s Gold by the way,” the boy says between mouthfuls. His plate is full and piled high with mountains of food, quite the contrast to my empty plate.

            “Mine’s Red,” I reply, looking at the food uncertainly.

            “Aren’t you going to eat anything?” Gold asks, having worked his way through all of his chicken already. “It won’t be for grabs forever you know.”

            “Yeah, I am,” Red replies, slightly embarrassed. “I’m just having a bit of trouble adjusting I guess.” Red takes a long look at the food and then stats piling his plate too, as he takes his first bite he melts. It’s the best thing he’s ever tasted.

            “Muggle born?” Gold questions. Red simply nods in reply. “That’s cool, I’m kind of half half, my mother’s a witch, but my father’s a muggle, best of both worlds I guess.”

            The rest of the conversation continues in a similar way, with Gold throwing sentences out everywhere and red giving minimalist answers, testing his ground, not entirely sure how to take in all the new knowledge gold was spouting out. It was strange to red to be so quiet, he wasn’t used to feeling this wordless, usually he was fine he was loud and talkative, but for once in his life he had no ide what to say.

            Soon dinner ended, but to him it felt like an eternity and he was absolutely exhausted by the time he got to his room, and far too tired to admire how beautiful the dorms or common room was, if he had been less tired he probably would have been speechless once again at the majesty of it all. He would have gazed in wonder at the archways so huge he wasn’t sure how all of these rooms fit in the castle. The colours would be vibrant from excitement, but not harsh like earlier and he would gaze at the carvings and portraits in wonder and amazement, he would feel that buzz of magic in the air that was steadily becoming more and more familiar, and it would race through his body.

            But today he just dropped onto his bed, spared a brief moment to notice that all his luggage had been taken up, magically or by some other method he didn’t yet know of and then fell straight to sleep as his head sunk into the pillow.


	2. damn this cabinet and damn the stairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Red hates cabinets and stairs hold him hostage

Red glared at his bedside cabinet. He was the last person in the dorm room due to everyone else having way less stuff than him and probably some sense of organisation. He however was sat in front of his bedsde cabinet attempting to cram on three pictures, two boxes, a parchment and quill, an actual pen, pencil, eraser, sharpener and ruler, the rest of his pencil case, and room for his hat. And that was only the top of the cabinet.

            Anyway, it didn’t help that in reflection of his anger the world was an aggressive red and all the other colours seemed to be trying to attack him, anly making him stressed and giving him a headache to look at them all.

            Suddenly there was a knock on the door and then it pushed open. Red stalled for a minute, he had thought he was alone in the dorms, everyone else had gone to explore the school. Then he also wondered who would bother to knock on their own door. He turned around to see.

            Leaning against the frame was a boy dressed in mostly the same school uniform as him, except where he wore Griffindor scarlet and gold, this boy wore the tell-tale Slytherin green and black. The boy had spiky blonde hair and eyes blazing green. He wore his smirk like a fashion accessory and his eyes were practically made to glower. Around him the world seemed to glow slightly, lifting the angry blood colours everywhere a tittle, like a light in the mist. After a moment the boy raised his eyebrows and Red realised he had been staring at him practically open mouthed for a minute or so.

            “Strange to see a Slytherin up close and in the flesh?” the boy asked, his eyes daring red to answer.

            “Strange to see one in the Griffindor dormitories more like,” Red retorted. “Who let you in anyway?”

            “Some boy with black hair that needs a little less gel and a uniform that needs fixing.”

            _Gold then_

            “Why?”

            “Because the sleeves aren’t supposed to be rolled like that and the robe is meant to be much longer,” the boy replied as he inspected his nails. Red wasn’t sure why he bothered they were obviously perfect.

            “No, I meant why’d he let you in,” Red corrected. “This is griffindor’s common rooms, other houses aren’t allowed in.” Red wasn’t entirely sure how true that last bit was, as he hadn’t paid much attention to the rules when they were being told, but it sounded right and he had often been told that confidence was key to people believing you.

            “Yes, well my luggage got taken to the wrong place.” The boy finally told him. “Ruddy house elves.”

            Red didn’t bother to ask what a house elf was, he didn’t want to look stupid in front of this other boy who clearly knew what he was doing. At least this explained the expensive looking suitcase that no one had claimed.

            Red gestured over to where the trunk was and turned back to his cabinet and trying to cram everything in.

            “So what’s your name anyway?” Red asked in what he hoped was a casual manner, out of the corner of his eye he saw that the boy looked slightly confused, as though surprised that Red didn’t know.

            “It’s Green,” he finally answered after a few moments of silence.

            “Mine’s Red,” Red chipped in, hoping he didn’t sound too strange.

            The silence grew longer. Until;

            “Is that your cabinet?” Green asked, curious.

            “Yes,” Red replied almost defensively. “Why?”

            “It’s a disaster, what even is half this stuff?”

            “Important to me.”

            “Here let me help, you clearly have no idea what you’re doing.”

            Red considered the offer a moment, even if it did sound more like an order than an option. Would it look odd, a Slytherin helping a Griffindor? Then he realized that no one was around to see anyway and that he really did need the help, so he moved over to let Green kneel next to him.

            Green was a very efficient worker, and with him helping it took much less time, and he even managed to help red find somewhere to hang his hat, even though green did give him a bit of an odd look when he said that he absolutely had to have the battered red cap out.

Soon they were done and red looked at the now tidy bedside cabinet. The papers and parchments were now neatly sorted into a rack that green had conjured up, the pencils and quills sat in a pot next to them, the boxes in front the pictures were now in a kind of multi frame that held all of them rather than trying to get each one in its own frame and red even had room for his random bits and pieces. Finally his hat hung off of the side.

            The rest of the world had also assumed the rest of the calm happy colours that seemed to be attached to Green by the time they were finished, but only he seemed to have that strange little glow around him.

            “What on earth,” Green asked, “is this?” he had picked up red’s battered ipod and headphones and was holding them with the tips of his fingers as though it might be poisonous.

            “It’s my ipod, it plays music and apps and stuff.” Red replied. “Although a lot of them don’t work now, because there’s no wi-fi.”

            “What the fuck is wi-fi?”

            “It’s like erm, its wi-fi you know?!”

            Green evidently did not know, but he shook his head and put it back down on the table anyway.

            “Anyway I think we’re done here.” Green said standing up and brushing himself down.

            “See you around I guess?” Red offered hopefully, but green just shrugged and made for the door, taking his golden glow with him. As he left the room red sighed, wondering if he would see him around again.

           

            ---------

 

Green wandered around the halls, he was trying to figure his way around this infernal school and the constantly moving staircases and whispering portraits were not helping. Not that any of the portraits actually bothered to talk to him, just about him. He tried not to listen to any of the hushed conversations, but he knew what they were saying anyway. It was the exact reason he had waited. The reason he had waited to fetch his things so he could put them away and the reason he had waited to look around the school. He wanted to be away from the rest of the crowd, he didn’t want to hear all of them talking about him, the grandson of the great professor oak, in Slytherin.

            He thought back to earlier that day, when the house elves had accidentally put his things in the wrong room he had felt sick, he hadn’t wanted to have to go into a room full of staring Griffindors and questioning students, but he had been surprised. Thankfully after the first irritating boy with the stupid uniform there had been only one Griffindor there, and he hadn’t eve known who he was. Muggle-born Green supposed, not that there was anything wrong with that. Unlike what most people would probably expect of him he didn’t hate muggles, honestly the way that they got by without magic fascinated him.

            The Red boy had been a blessing in disguise, though he would never admit it, and probably never speak to him again after red inevitably found out who he was. It had been nice to have a while of normal conversation without any questions about his family or anything and it had calmed him down after the initial worry of the boy realising who he was. Also the glow of colours that surrounded him had quite literally brightened up his day. Now however the world was back to greys and whites, reflecting him as the colours always seemed to know how to.

            Green continued wandering the halls, not paying much attention to anything other than his thoughts when suddenly someone shouting his name snapped him out of it.

            “Green!” the voice shouted, “Green over here!” the voice sounded familiar, and he saw all of the portraits turn to look at the source of it. He closed his eyes, groaned in preparation for more questioning and then opened them and turned to see who it was, preparing himself to tell them to piss off. He stopped in his tracks when he realised who it was.

            Across the enormous corridors and the maze of ever shifting stairs Red was sat, trapped in a corner that no stairs seemed to want to pick him up from Green cant supress a burst of laughter. Even from this distance he could see red glare at him. Shaking his head Green made his way towards him, towards that glowing light, the stairs doing what he wanted with little effort. when he finally arrived at the landing red stood up, blushing furiously. Green laughs again.

            “It wasn’t my fault!” Red protests. “I was lost, so I stopped to get out my map, and while I was looking at it the stairs moved away from my landing and none of them would come back to pick me up! Who programmed these stupid things anyway?” he asked sullenly, kicking at the floor like a kid who had just been scolded.

            “You’re supposed to control them with your magic,” Green replied, sobering up some what. “if you don’t they wont bother to respect you, magic is mischevious like that.” Green shook his head again. “Come on I’ll show you around the school so that you don’t get yourself trapped again.” Together they wander through the building, green showing red all of the interesting parts and passageways that he knew about. It’s a much more pleasant walk when everything is in such pretty colours and with Red it’s even enjoyable. At some point Green takes Red’s hand to stop him from wandering off, as he soon discovered that Red had an incurable habit of wandering off wherever he feels like whenever he feels like. Hand in hand they walked through the passageways, exploring all the nooks and crannies that they don’t know where leads to where, Red showed Green some of his music and how to work his Ipod and Green showed Red various spells and how to navigate his way around without getting lost. Eventually one of them finally checked the time and realised that dinner started about five minutes ago, rushing through the halls, taking all of the shortcuts that they’ve discovered in their wanderings they arrive at the great hall, hoping that no one will notice them. Of course everyone notices the Griffindor and Slytherin walking in together.

            As he sits down, avoiding the stares of his fellow Slytherins and trying not to notice their not-so-hushed conversation he eats his food, watching the softly vibrant colours from before fade into dull greys and whites, he looks up at Red across the room, chatting casually to the group of friends surrounding him and gazes at the beautiful shades of scarlet and gold that seem to surround him. Looking at him is rather like watching a sunset Green thinks.

 

            --------

 

As Red takes his place at the Griffindor table a group of people suddenly surrounds him, led of course by Gold.

            “What?” he asks, looking up at all of them.

            “What on earth were you two doing?!” Gold asks, eager for knowledge. “I let him in to fetch his suitcase and suddenly you two show up late together?”

            Red flushed, “he was showing me around, I got kind of lost and well, I guess we lost track of time,” he shrugs, starting to pile food onto his plate.

            “You just lost track of time?” Gold exclaimed, incredulous. “Do you know who that was?”

            “Er, his name’s Green I think.” Red replied, even though there was no doubt in his mind about who the boy was he’d been thinking about their encounter for far longer than he probably should have after he had left for the first time.

            “”Just Green? That’s all you know?”

            “Erm, yes?”

            “That’s not _just_ Green, that’s _the_ Green Oak, son of the Professor Oak!”

            “Who?”

            “Wow, you really don’t know. Professor Oak, headmaster of this school, one of the most powerful wizards ever, great researcher of magic.”

            “Oh, that’s pretty cool, I didn’t know he had a famous grandfather.”

            “Anyway, haven’t you heard everything? His family has been a long line of Griffindors, people are practically rioting over the fact that he got put in Sytherin, didn’t you hear everyone, it was just before you got called up.”

            “Why’s it such a big deal that he’s in Slytherin? So what if he’s in a different house?”

            “Don’t you know, all of the evil wizards ever have been in Slytherin, and it’s like the most evil house in the school! For an Oak to be put in there is huge!”

            “Surely not an entire house can be evil, and besides just because all of the evil wizards come from there doesn’t mean that they’re all evil. Don’t you know the whole all thumbs are fingers but not all fingers are thumbs thing?”

            “Whatever, just be careful with him, and expect everyone to make a big deal out of it, there’s been dispute between Slytherin and Griffindor since the founding parents.”

            Gold went back to his food after that, and despite the huge crowd still talking about them, it pretty much went back to what Red could only assume was normal after only a day and a half at this school. But he snuck a quick glance at the back of the hall where Green was sat all on his lonesome, and the colours around him glow a happy green and he smiles to himself, he probably looks like an idiot for it but he doesn’t mind, as it turns out he’d already made the whole school freak out, so why not give them a bit more to talk about.


	3. silver linings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which i introduce an almost new character, give people disastrous potion partners and green and red are both idiots

To say that Red was nervous was an understatement. That morning he had slept in and when he had given the go ahead for Gold to go ahead with his other friends Gold had taken it without much thinking. So there he was, walking the halls with only half an idea of where he was going and a bag full of probably more than he needed, as he had no idea what to bring for lessons, and so his simple solution had been to take all of it.

            He was now stood outside of what he was hoping was the classroom he was supposed to be in and willing himself to knock. He knew that the longer he left it the later he would be, and therefore the more awkward it would be, but even with the knowledge it was hard to make himself.

            _If you never enter the classroom though you’ll never have to deal with it._

            He shook his head, clearing it of thought. The easiest way for him to deal with it was for him to not think about it too much, or think about what he was doing, thinking leads to over thinking and over thinking leads to stress. Putting on what he hoped was a confident air he pushed open the door and walked into the classroom.

            “Ah, Mr Red, glad that you’ve finally shown up. As it’s the first week I won’t dock any house points, but do try not to make a habit out of this. Take a seat, find some parchment and then start copying from the blackboard. I am professor Blanche and I will be teaching potions.”

            As the professor made his mini speech Red looked around desperately for a seat. He glanced at where gold was sat but his bench was full of unfamiliar people, Gold mouthed an apology but Red just shrugged and continued his search until his eyes settled on a person sat at the back of the classroom in a corner on a deserted bench, surrounded by that glow that was gradually getting more and more familiar. He began making his way to the back of the room, ignoring the stares and hushed whispers of his fellow classmates.

            He put his stuff down and sank into the bench next to Green.

            “Fancy meeting you here,” red grinned at him. And though Green rolled his eyes Red could see a small smile escape his exasperated façade.

            “Mm, small school,” Green agreed.

            “So what does everything on the board say?”

            Green sighed again, shook his head and then started explaining what seemed to be utter nonsense to Red.

 

            Half an hour later Red decided that maybe potions wasn’t so bad, in a way it kind of reminded him of normal science back home, and even if he’d never been very good at science, at least it was familiar. Then again maybe if Green had sat next to him in his old school he’d have been better at it.

            Soon the teacher cleared his throat and called for everyone’s attention, after a moment the chatter died down and everyone was focused on the teacher at the front of the room.

            “Right,” the teacher began. “I hope you all picked your seats well students, as the person sitting next to you will be your partner for the rest of this term, and possibly the year.”

            There were groans all around the room, and sudden worried glances from people who hadn’t paid attention to where they sat and had strangers sat on one of their sides.

            “And listen, I know all of your tricks, so I am taking down names now of pairs, no need to move, everyone just stay still and when I point at you say your name. If you have a preference on what to be called now would be a good time to mention it.”

            The teacher went around the room collecting names, and though there were grumbles from a few of them Red was secretly glad of the excuse to be around green’s glowing colours more of the time.

            Soon after that class was dismissed and everyone filed out of the room, chattering amongst themselves. Using the crowd as a way for no one to notice them red and green slipped out without anyone commenting on them again, and Red felt Green’s hand slip into his, like it had before when he wandered off for the sixth time yesterday.

            Red shot a sideways grin at Green who just shrugged.

            “Can’t have you wandering off again and being late for both of your first classes of the day.”

            “Shut up, the stairs still aren’t listening to me, I don’t know how you do it.” Red complained. “Is there some kind of secret technique I’m not privy to?”

            Green smirked, “If there was I wouldn’t tell you about it.”

            “Slytherin bully”

            “Griffindor jock”

           

            They managed to get to the next class without further incident, and with their combined knowledge and control of the stairs they even managed to get there before anyone else, and red and green slipped into the back corner. For a moment they argued over who got which seat, but eventually Green conceded the wall seat to Red, pretending that it didn’t bother him at all, which of course led to red poking fun at him. Literally poking, in the face while calling him grumpy guts. He stopped when the teacher coughed conspicuously loudly however. A moment or so later another student came in and red, leaning into the corner so that he was actually facing Green to the side of him rather than the teacher and with both feet up, glanced around green to see who it was.

            After a moment Red recognised the new arrival as the scowly kid with the long red hair that had been the first to be sorted. His name was silver something or other the real shock however came when he sat down on the other side of Green.

            “What’s up with you, you seem tired?” Green asked. And for some reason that Red couldn’t quite explain he felt kind of upset that Green was paying attention to this new kid.

            “Some Griffindor kid that was sat next to me in potions, way too loud and apparently now I’m stuck with him for the rest of the term.” Silver scowled. “Kept saying that he’s sure it’ll be great and it must be destiny because our names matched or some stupid ass reason like that.”

            Red smiled to himself, Gold, it had to be. Even after only being here for a couple of days he knew that there was no way anyone else could be that obnoxious and loud. His thoughts were confirmed when gold walked in a few moments later and started talking loudly to silver. Red thought that he was oddly glad that these particular benches only held three, if gold and silver were together for too long he thought that silver would rip gold’s throat out to stop him talking. Gold should really learn when to shut up. Thankfully Gold leaves pretty quickly

            “So who’s this kid anyway?” silver asks, pointing a thumb at Red.

            “Hey, you’re in the same year as me!” Red protests, wondering whom exactly this Silver kid thought he was.

            “This is Red, my partner for potions.”

            “And you really want to be stuck together for any longer for that?”

            “I’m right here you know?”

            “He’s actually okay once you get to know him.”

            “And when exactly did you get to know him, he looks like he’s wearing a Griffindor tie.”

            “Yesterday when I went to fetch my trunk.”

            “Huh, is this the guy you came in with yesterday when you were late?

            “Yup.”

            Red sighed; even if they were talking about him they still weren’t paying attention to him. He gazed out at the dull colours of the room and blocked out the rest of their conversation, shifting into a normal sitting position. Green doesn’t move to close it, and he wishes that he had sat normally from the beginning, maybe than the gap between them wouldn’t seem so huge, maybe then he’d be closer. Or maybe he would have sat that distance away anyway.

When the teacher called for attention he tried to absorb himself into the work, but it made little to no sense to him and mostly the colours around him just grew more and more erratic and angry. And lonely. He refused to ask Green for help though, he didn’t want to be a kid clinging to Green anymore, he was going to stand on his own two feet and figure it out for himself. Especially with that Silver guy watching. When the class is over he doesn’t reach for Green’s hand, and Green doesn’t reach for his.

 

 

Green glares at the back of Red’s head for most of the class, willing the idiot to turn around. After the initial conversation he hadn’t really been paying much attention to what Silver was saying, and he felt kind of bad. Silver had been nice to him these past couple days, which was more than could be said for most people, but at the moment he just wanted the glowing idiot next to him to actually start talking again.

Green wondered if it was his fault, maybe he should have replied to what he said earlier quicker? When Red moves further away from him Green feels like screaming, what had he done? Was Red moving away because Green had done something wrong, was he coming off too strong, maybe he was being too clingy, was this a weird level of affection to show a friend? Had the hand holding weirded him out? Was he just shifting so he could see the board better? But why shift into that position so far away from Green? Why not sit closer?

Green wondered if maybe he was the only one who wanted to really be friends. When had red actually pushed towards him? Hadn’t it been him who had stayed in the Griffindor dormitories? True Red had called him over with the stairs incident, but he was probably just happy to see anyone at all, that happiness had nothing to do with Green. And wasn’t it then him who stayed and showed ‘red around? Wasn’t it him who had grabbed his hand both times previously? Maybe Red didn’t actually care about being around him and was only being polite.

Green stared around at the greys of the rest of the room, not daring to look at red, not taunting himself with the happy colours surrounding him that he knew could never belong to him. He waits that entire class, wanting Red just to turn to him and ask a question so that he has an excuse to talk to him, to bask in his golden glow. So when class ends he doesn’t try to grab his hand, it would hurt far too much if Red pushed him away, and that just might be more than Green could take.


	4. you believe me, don't you Green?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which they have a picnic and also someone may or may not be crossdressing

Red glared at his broom. For his past three attempts it had remained stubbornly out of his reach, and he wondered why he couldn’t just pick up the stupid thing. So far he had gotten it to wiggle around and flop like a fish out of water. One of the times he swore it landed further away than it started. Red sighed, took a deep breath and tried it again, throwing all of the magic he could into the word.

            “Up,” he commanded, and this time it jumped up high enough for him to lunge slightly and grab it out of the air. He glanced around him warily to check if anyone had noticed him making an idiot of himself, and locked eyes with Green, who was silently laughing at him.

            “Buzz off,” he mouthed back at him, but he was pretty sure that green’s grin just widened. He looked away from Green with the intention of ignoring him, but out of the corner of his eye he could still see where the rest of the colours of the world morphed into the glowing ones that seemed to follow Green around, and he knew that it was going to be impossible to block him out for the entire lesson.

            As the class went by Red got better with the broom, and he wasn’t entirely sure whether Green’s laughing presence and seeming expertise on the broomstick was helping or hindering him. However at the end of the class Red suddenly realised that things had gone back to normal without either of them saying a word about anything.

            “That went by quick, huh?” Red commented as they all gathered around to hand back their broomsticks to the teacher. “I guess it’s true what they say about time _flying_.”

            Green hit him.

            “So, have you got class or are you on break too?” Red asked, hands in pockets and rocking on his feet in what he hoped was an almost normal manner.

            “I’m on break, wanna go explore the grounds?”

            “You know I do.”

           

            They walk around the grounds, listening to music as they walk. Red had already pulled out Greens headphone twice and now Green held his hand again to stop him running off, and with every step they took their shoulders would bump together. One time Green tripped over Red’s untied shoelaces and Red found it hilarious, Green however had been less inclined to see it that way and had tied Red’s shoes himself probably a little tighter than was necessary.

            Suddenly a loud voice interrupted their wanderings.

            “Red!” the voice yelled. Red closed his eyes and groaned silently as he realised who it was. Green was much more vocal. Red elbowed him and Green shot him a look of _well we were both thinking it_. They turned around to see Gold running towards them, dragging behind him an unwilling Silver.

            “Hey guys, you coming or what?”

            “Coming where?” Red asked Gold, as Green seemed not to wish to participate in the conversation.

            “I found this great spot out of the way of everyone else and I thought it’d be perfect for a first day picnic! It’s actually where I ran into Silver and got the idea.”

            “It clearly wasn’t out of the way enough,” Silver muttered, rubbing his wrist where Gold had grabbed him just above his glove.

            Gold seemed to pay no attention to silver however and continued his pleas.

            “Fine,” Red conceded, glancing back at Green, who rolled his eyes but motioned for gold to lead the way nonetheless. Red smiled at him, and as an unlikely group of friends they set out towards gold’s picnic spot chattering idly.

 

 

 

Green sighed to himself as he followed the boy with the stupid hair to his so-called picnic spot. It was the same boy who had let him in to the common room, the same one that had started chattering away at Silver that day and presumably his loud potions partner, he was also it seemed however some friend of Red’s and so here he’d ended up.

It was Red’s fault really; Red with his stupid cap that he probably thought Green hadn’t noticed lurking at the bottom of his bag along with what looked to be an entire library and then some. Red with his stupid music device and glowing aura and stupid disorganisation and getting held hostage by stupid moving stairs. And his stupid puppy dog eyes that were absolutely impossible to say no to, no matter how loud or annoying his friend was.

Fine, it wasn’t actually possible to blame Red for _everything_ , for example he hadn’t even met Red yet when he was sorted into Slytherin, but he could damn well try. He sighed and looked over at Red, who has relieved Silver of his duties and was talking to Gold, laughing and rubbing the back of his head while smiling that stupid cheesy grin.

            This hadn’t been the plan at all. First his plan had been to get into Gryffindor, talk to as few people as he could get away with, study hard and do well enough that he could finally surpass the label of being Professor Oak’s grandson. That when people heard the name Oak they would think of Green rather than some stupid stuffy professor. When he got sorted into Slytherin that upset his plans somewhat, but he changed to adapt, he always did. That was something he had always been good at. As it turned out even being sorted into Slytherin hadn’t even made his name. It had just added a word, now he was Professor Oak’s Slytherin Grandson. But he could still pull it off, but now he wouldn’t talk to anyone, just study, be the very best and make sure everyone knew that Slytherin was not going to be used disgracefully, he would make them treat it with as much respect as Gryffindor. As much respect as he deserved.

These were possibly high aspirations for an eleven year old to have, but he didn’t care, if he didn’t start planning now when would he. But as it turned out he would have all of his plans disrupted anyway. And all of that would happen around one stupid boy calling out to him, over a few damn stairs and a cabinet and a stupid glowing aura that called him ever closer. And now instead of studying or doing homework or locking himself away in a corner where he couldn’t hear everyone whispering the words grandson and Slytherin he was at a damn picnic, and someone was calling his name.

He snapped back to earth.

“What?”

Red rolled his eyes. “I was saying that I thought I could fit an entire mini roll into my mouth whole, and gold didn’t think I could, you believe me right?”

“I firmly believe that you’re stupid enough to try.”

Red looked offended and then grasped for the mini rolls. As it turned out he could fit two mini rolls in his mouth.

“Over achiever.”

“You’re only saying that because you could only fit one in.”

“This is stupid anyway, why would I want to be known as the twat who fit two mini rolls in his mouth and then almost choked on them?”

“Hey, my mouth was really full, that makes it hard to swallow!”

“And I’ll be sure to put that on your tombstone.”

“And I, have decided to take up cross dressing.” Silver’s silky unfamiliar tones cut through the conversation. It was strange to actually hear him chip in. and then the words actually sunk in.

“Wait what?”

“Told you I could snap them out first.”

“But I even tried saying that I was gay!” Gold protested.

“Yeah but everyone already knew that, also everyone’s used to hearing you spout bullshit.”

“Whatever.”

“Wait, are you cross-dressing or not, I’m confused,” Red interrupted.

“We were just trying to see who could get your attention first, don’t worry about it,” Silver replied.

“Of course you’re confused Red,” Green said at the same time.

“Hey!” Red shouted a few seconds later, pushing Green over.

They stayed like that for a while, throwing grass and meaningless insults around, but all lunchtimes have to end, and eventually they packed up and headed to their last class, still picking bits of grass out of their hair.

Their late arrival in the classroom attracted plenty of stares and whispers, but thankfully no detentions or point reductions as they all crammed onto a bench at the front and got out their books.

After a few minutes, Green and Red slipped back into their old pattern of Red asking about every other word and Green explaining everything to him. Green sighed exaggeratedly every time Red stopped on a word, but he didn’t actually mind. Then about two-thirds into the lesson Red leaned over real close and whispered;

            “Silver never actually answered my question about cross-dressing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey sorry this one took so long and is kind of short but i wanted to say thanks to anyone who left kudos and also thank you so much for all of the lovely comments they mean the world to me :D


	5. who even celebrates halloween anyway?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which i introduce yet another character and silver and green really hate halloween.

Nothing particularly interesting happens over the next few weeks. Lessons continue as normal and Red gets slightly less awful at some of them, he even borders on alright at history and potions with Green helping him. Although he still has issues with the more magic related aspects of potions and in history he apparently lacks a lot of the knowledge that seems to be common place for everyone else. He's not entirely lacking however, as it turns out most of the big wars in humanity were just as huge of a deal in the wizarding world, and a lot of the lessons actually revolved around how those wars had affected the wizarding world.

After a few weeks of quiditch practice he's also getting better at that, though he still seems to be miles behind the naturals like Green and Silver, which of course they take every opportunity to point out. Gold however he has managed to overtake and although he tries not to hold it over his head he can't help but feel just a little bit smug about it.

The subject of him and Green however had completely failed to die out as a topic of conversation. People would still see them in the hall and stop to whisper and gawk. It would have been fine if it were just a few people in a crowd, but everyone would also practically throw themselves to the side when they saw them coming, giving the effect of walking down an isle crammed with people on either side. Some of the older years however it seemed were either more mature or the not-so-whispered rumours had failed to reach them as they had no such reaction to their presence. Red and Green had gradually learned to slip around the corridors hiding themselves in crowds of the upper years to get to their classes. This however wouldn’t work all the time, sometimes the older students would be in other places and they would have to walk through the corridors unprotected from the other students stares. Gold was generally the best solution in these situations as he seemed to be unaffected by the other chatter of people in the halls and spoke as lively and loudly as if he were surrounded by people yelling at the top of their lungs.

However this routine of nothingness was interrupted by the rapidly approaching end of October. As it turned out Halloween was a bigger deal than Red had expected in the wizarding world, and this year they had absolutely decided to go all out with a party and everything.

“Are they really serious about this, it’s completely ridiculous,” Silver complained as they lay on the grass outside the school. The spot of their picnic from the first day had become a popular spot for them when it became apparent that the chatter about them wasn’t dying down and as it turned out it was quite effective as a place people couldn’t find.

“Yeah well, my Grandad is actually a huge fan of all holidays, he thinks they’re a great way to get everyone together,” Green told him. “So this is actually pretty standard for my family.”

“Really?,” Red asked. “The most my family ever bothered to do was get a bag of candy to give people if they came knocking on our door.”

“Yeah well you should consider yourself lucky, you weren’t forced to wear stupid costumes and pretend to like people while they stood there telling you how much you’ve grown, or you look oh so cute in that suit.”

“I’m sure you looked absolutely adorable in that suit,” Red laughed.

Green throw the fistful of grass he had been ripping out of the ground at Red, who just laughed it off.

“So what are you going to dress up as for the party?” Gold asked.

“Disappointing grandchild,” Green replied, not missing a beat. Gold just rolled his eyes.

“I think I should try get a gun and if anyone tries to take off of me tell them I’m a werewolf hunter, what do you think Silver?” Gold asked.

Silver just shrugged and rolled to face the other way, clearly done with the conversation.

“Alternatively just shoot them if you’ve got a gun anyway,” Red supplied.

“So what about you, what are you gonna do.” Gold was clearly determined to get answers off of everyone. Red was saved from answering however through Silver suddenly standing and saying that class would start any minute now.

As they walked to class however Red thought about it, he had to do something, it was mandatory for the party, but he had also never actually dressed up for anything like Halloween before. Besides where was he supposed to get the costume from?

***

  
A few nights later it was the morning of Halloween, and Red still had absolutely no idea what to wear to the party. As he stared at his clothes he started to wonder if the best idea was to just get a bunch of ketchup and tell everyone he was dead. Suddenly a bird flew into the window. Grateful for any excuse to procrastinate his decision further he ran over to the window and scooped up the bird that was now pecking the window angrily much to the annoyance of the other Gryffindor’s

He brought the bird over to his desk and saw it was clutching a note, to his surprise it was addressed to him. All it said was

 _We’ve got a plan, meet us in the dungeons, bring the loud one if you want_.

There was no doubt in Red’s mind that the note was from Green. Even if he hadn’t already mesmerised Green’s neat, flowing handwriting, some of his glowing green aura still clung to the letter, and he could feel his mood improving just from looking at it.

Grabbing his jacket he practically ran out of the dorms and into the common room, where Gold sat chatting with a bunch of other Gryffindors. Red waved over at him to come over and he saw him end his conversations with them and come join him.

“Yo, what up?”

“Check this out,” he showed him the note. “So you coming?”

“Heck yeah, let’s go!”

Together they left the common room, trying not to run and look too suspicious. As they headed down to the dungeons they almost got lost a couple of times, but figured out their way eventually. They stand outside the Slytherin common room and look around nervously for Green and Silver. Not for the first time today he’s grateful that today they don’t have to wear uniform, with his Gryffindor tie he would stick out like a sore thumb in the Slytherin dungeons.

“Hey, what took you so long,” a voice hisses out from the shadows.

“Sorry, we got a bit lost on the way,” Red replies.

“Whatever, just get over here before someone sees you,” Silver says.

Following Silver he leads them through the gloom of the shadows to a room off the side of the common rooms. The room has a few pillows strewn across it and a chalkboard hung on the wall. Books sit piled against the walls and papers and parchment are discarded to the side.

Gold whistles, “Nice place you’ve got here,anyone else know about it?”

“Nope,” silver replies, “Just us three and you two now.”

_Three?_

Red looks around and sees Green lying across some of the pillows with a girl, drawing on what looks like a map. For a moment the world tints red and he feels a strange emotion twist in his gut, but then Green turns, smiles and beckons for him to come over and the world relaxes into its normal colours. He walks over and looks at what they were drawing on. He was right, it is a map. It looks like a map of the school in fact.

“So what plan is this we’ve come to see?” Red asks, hoping he sounds casual.

“Who’s the chick?” Gold asks at the same time.

Green gets up and brushes himself down, his casual clothes are just as immaculate as his uniform and despite lying on the floor there isn’t a wrinkle in sight. Red suspects that he’s using some kind of spell to keep his clothes perfect along with his hair. There’s no way they can stay like that naturally. “Short version is that we’ve found a way to get out of this stupid Halloween thing without anyone noticing us, Blue knows a room that she guarantees no one will find.”

_Oh, so that’s her name._

Blue gets up off of the floor to join them, clutching the map and a pen stuck behind her ear. There’s a mischievous glimmer in her eyes that matched a sly smile. Based off of her outfit and hair it looked as if she was using the same spell he suspected Green of.

“Come on,” she said heading over to the door. “If we wait too much longer we’ll get caught by the teachers.”

Together the five of them sneak through the corridors and they soon come to an empty corridor. At first glance it doesn’t seem very impressive, or even seem unusual in any way, but something about it seemed slightly off to Red and his colours sharpened and then blurred, confused. Then it clicked what was wrong with the picture.

“Green why are there no doors in this corridor?”

But Green just shrugged and waved a dismissive hand. Once they reach the end of the corridor Blue leads them back up it again, and so red assumes it must of been a wrong turn, though why it took that long for her to figure it out he had no idea. However once they get to the end of the corridor again Blue just turns them around and walks back up it again. Red and Gold exchange confused glances, but sigh and follow the others once more. Red wished that Blue had chosen a shorter corridor to pace. They repeat this until they have paced it a total of seven times until finally they get to the dead end and red prepares to turn back again only to notice something different. Sat in the wall beside them was a door that red could have sworn wasn’t there before.

“What the-“

“Hurry up!” Blue interrupts, already in the room, head poked out and an exasperated look on her face. Red realises that him and gold had been standing there for what must have been a solid minute. Exchanging a wide eyed look with Gold, Red walks through the door to find a room that he wasn’t even sure should be able to fit in that wall. The room was spacious and there were beanbags and chairs that meant they were spoiled for choice on where to sit. Bookshelves were stacked with so many books that red was certain it would take a hundred lifetimes to read all of them. An actual TV is mounted on one wall with DVDs filling shelves around it.

“Wow, this is awesome!” came a voice from behind red, voicing his own thoughts.

“How did this room get here?” asked Red, dumbfounded.

“Magic,” Blue replies simply, shrugging. Red probably should have figured that out, everything was magic here, which reminded him..

“I thought Wi-Fi didn’t work in the school, the magic interfered of something, so what’s with the computer?”

“I thought so too, but for some reason it works in here. It’s fascinating really, there must be some kind of magic reversal technique while also being magic itself, which is interesting, because that shouldn’t work, yet for some reason it manages it,” Blue rambled on and Red tuned out when he realised he didn’t understand a word she was saying. After a minute she must have also realised he wasn’t paying attention as she stopped talking and looked slightly dejected.

“Awesome!” Gold suddenly burst out. “All of the Sharknado movies are here! Who wants a marathon?!” there are eye rolls and groans all around the room, but eventually he manages to coax everyone into it and fifteen minutes later the five of them were curled around the T.V. with pizza, chocolate and drinks that the room had somehow conjured up.

As it turned out Green had never actually watched T.V. before, which Red thought was really a rather large gap in knowledge, and so constantly kept getting confused by what was happening on screen. Blue was a muggle born like Red, and so had much better cinematic knowledge, but still kept joining up with green to pick on various faults of the movies. Oddly enough however with all of them tangled on the floor it was a rather enjoyable experience, even with Blue’s heckling of the film, and Gold starting a snack fight which ended with everyone covered in melted chocolate. Green refused to do the cleaning spell for Red unless he agreed with him that the movies were ridiculous, and not wanting to lose to him he was forced to attempt the spell himself. The result wasn’t exactly something red could define as a success.

By the end of the day they had watched the entirety of the Sharknado movies and the first three pirates of the Caribbean movies and they were all absolutely exhausted.   
Once they decided it was time to go to bed they exited the room, paced the corridor seven more times, and this time when they opened the door they found passageways leading to their various dormitories. Bidding the others good night Gold and Red clambered as quietly as they could into the Gryffindor dorms, whispering in excitement about the day. The fat lady gave them a disapproving look and muttered something about boys these days, but swung open for them when they whispered the password.

Thankfully when they got in everyone else was already asleep and they didn’t have to answer to anyone about where they had been or what they had been doing.

Despite the heavy weight that tugged on his eyelids red had trouble sleeping, his mind still racing and his heart still pounding with exhilaration at everything that had happened that day, from the note arriving to sneaking about the castle to just watching movies with friends. And so when he finally drifts off his mind is filled with thoughts of happiness, small things like a secret room and Green’s arm draped around him as he rests his head on his lap.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks again for reading and extra thanks if you left kudos it's once again greatly appreciated, I hope you enjoy this chapter, sorry it took so long to get up, been busy with life.   
> I've finally applied for work experience at waterstones though, so fingers crossed that works out, see you next chapter!


	6. Stupid dares and smores

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took so long I had to rewrite it about 5 times because it kept deleting and I had a bunch of other stuff to do sorry I know I've said it before but Ima try post more frequently I promise also sorry its not great

"You just had to go and throw out the most ridiculous dare you could think of didn't you green? not just an oh losers have to make out or something like that, no, let's sneak into a forbidden forest full of things that want to kill us!" Red has been grumbling non stop since they left their dorms.

"You want to make out with me?"

"I'd choose making out with a bear overspending a night in the forbidden forest in the middle of winter!"

"Whatever, we'll be fine." Green tries to sound more confident than he feels, when he'd spat out the challenge it had been in the heat of the moment and he hadn't been thinking too hard about what he said, just saying the first thing that came to mind but hey, he hadn't really been expecting to lose. It was probably Red's fault anyway, Green's sure he wouldn't have lost on his own.

Crawling stealthily out of the window Green lands softly on the snowy ground, his boots barely making a crunch on the icy blanket. a moment later Red comes crashing down next to him. Green sighs, Red's going to get them caught before they even reach the forest. Hauling Red to his feet he grabs hold of his hand to help him steady himself, then, thinking it through for a moment he decides to keep hold of his hand to stop him from wandering off and getting himself killed. 

They try to stick to the shadows at first, but once they get to the end of the wall there's really no shadows left to hide in, just an open field stretching out in front of them. Green grips Red's hand tighter to make sure that it doesn't slip out of his grip, and running across the field he tries not to think about how much noise they're making. He should have really cast a silent spell come to think of it, but there's no time now, if they stop in the middle of the field they're even more likely to get noticed and that would be bad, maybe he'll cast one when they get to the forest, and another to get warm. Maybe one to stay dry too, he could already feel the snow starting to seep toward his socks even through his thick shoes, he can only imagine reds feet must be soaked from his cheep shoes  that barely kept gravel out.

a few moments later they reach the edge of the forest, and Red leans against a tree, trying to catch his breath.

Green promptly yanks him away from said tree.

"Hey what're you doing?"

"We don't know what kind of things there are in this forest don't just casually lean against things like that!"

"Carniverous trees!" Red sound more excited by the idea than terrified.

"Shut up, I don't know. let's just keep moving, we can't just stay at the edge of the forest all night," Green grumbles. Red raises an eyebrow but otherwise doesn't say anything. he keeps hold of Green's hand and follows him into the forest.

  
12 HOURS EARLIER

  
The fire crackles happily at red and Green's feet, and Red tries his hardest to keep his eyes from sliding shut as Green reads to him. Green, as it turns out, has an amazing reading voice. it didn't really mater what he was reading, fiction or non fiction Green nailed it. As it is now green is reading from a potions book that they had been told to use to prepare for the test coming up.

"Red, are you listening to me?"

"Hmm?"

"Red! this stuff is important, they could test us on any of these potions and you need to be prepared for all of them, I am not having you drag me down in this class."

"I think it's unfair of them to make us study when it's below zero degrees."

"That's only outside."

"You're missing the point Green! it's actually snowing out there! do you know how rare snow is in my home town? i was like eighty percent sure it was a corporate lie made up by the government to make cheesy christmas movies look better!"

"Wouldn't the movie industries be the ones putting that rumour about?"

"Greeen!"

"Fine, if you can tell me wht amortentia is you can go play in the snow."

"Erm, isn't that some kind of love potion?"

"Ye, it's the strongest love potion in existence, it smells of whatever you love most and there can be various side effects, like-"

"GREEN!, I got it right, can we go play in the snow now?"

Green sighs and shakes his head, "fine," he says, holding his hands up in surrender. "Let's go play in the snow."

 

  
As it turned out Red had come to hogwarts completely unprepared for winter, he had brought no hat or scarves and his coat barely kept out the rain, let alone the freezing cold. so of course it had been left to Green to dress him up warmly enough to be able to set foot outside without being turned into an icicle. Red was now wering Green's gloves and hat, and they shared his scarf as Red had absolutely insisted that Green should at least benefit somewhat from the winter wear considering it belonged to Green. Green had rolled his eyes, but let him drape it around both of them. 

Currently, Red and Green were trying to build a snowman, failing miserably Green might add. He blamed it on the fact that they kept on tripping over each other, one would go in one direction and the other would try going the opposite way and the scarf would jump in to strangle them. After a while they learnt their way around it for the most part, but only after falling into the snowman a few times, one of the times he might have pushed Red. he also blamed Red for their failures. they definitely weren't his fault.

After an hour or so they had a slightly less terrible snowman, it even almost had a shape, and a mildly terrifying smiley face that red had drawn on.

"What the hell is that?" a voice laughs across the open field. Green groans, he knows that voice. only one person can be that irritating. 

"A snowman!" Red replies somewhat defensively. 

"That's an interesting interpretation of the phrase snowman." a voice cuts in. Silver, Green realises somewhat surprised, what were those two doing together? 

"As if you could do any better," Green shoots at them.

"I could do better than that blindfolded," Silver retorts.

"I think you could fail miserably and then blame it on the blindfold," 

"Fine then, why don't we settle this?"

"We each have one hour, You can have Red if you want."

"Okay, you can have Gold."

"Loser has to hug the womping willow."

"Loser has to spend a night in the forbidden forest."

"done."

"Good."

Green turns one eighty degrees and stalks off to another part of the field, Red in tow. they were going to wipe the floor with that pair

 

  
PRESENT TIME

 

  
"Greeeeeen, I'm tired," Red complains. 

"Shut up, it's not even midnight yet."

"Yeah, but we've been walking for what feels like hours, let's sit down somewhere."

"Ah yes let's sit on our asses and get mauled by werewolves! Great idea Red!"

"Wait are werewolves real?!"

"Of course they're real Red why wouldn't they be?"

"Does that mean there are vampires too"

"Don't be ludicrous Red."

Red glowers at Green. He's pretty sure green's doing this intentionally, but until he finds a way to figure out what exists and what doesn't he has no proof. Maybe he should go to the library without Green sometime and research it. Maybe Green would even be impressed that Red knew what he was talking about. He'd probably make fun of him for trying so hard though.  
They walk around for a while longer and Green's casual hand hiding has tightened to a death grip. Probably because of that time Red ran off towards a glowing light and almost died in a puddle. 

"If we were sat down somewhere I wouldn't run off chasing weird things," Red argues.

"If you had half a brain you wouldnt run off chasing weird things," green shoots back.

They continue walking.

"Hey Green I dare you to climb that tree."

"Red why the hell would I do that?"

"Why, are you scared to?"

"Of course I'm not scared to climb it, maybe you would be."

"Fine then, I'll race you to the top."

"You're on!" Green shouts, but Red is already racing towards the tree so he just runs after him, determined not to lose. He possibly should have learnt a lesson about making stupid dares and accepting them but...

 

 

  
Red is pretty confident he can win this Green may have spent his life preparing for Hogwarts and learning all of the spells and monster names, but Red grew up as a muggle. And in his world if there was an Olympic in tree climbing, he would have at least come in second. Maybe a solid third. Anyway, there's no way a posh boy like Green has had nearly as much experience tree climbing.

The tree is surprisingly easy to climb, sure it moves more than a regular tree, but Red can handle that. He leaps over a branch as it comes to hit at him and it hits Green instead, Red laughs for a solid ten seconds before in comes back and catches him across the side. Grabbing hold of it as it slams into him he clings for dear life until it's over another branch, which he drops onto, spider style. Sure he's a little lower than he was before, but he's still higher up than Green, and really that's all that's important.

His vision is streaked with yellows and oranges, not in an angry way, but rather in a competitive way. He would never admit to it, but when he got competitive his vision went video game style as he liked to call it. Streaks would appear at the edge of his sight, centralising whatever he was looking at. He was pretty sure it was from watching too much anime and playing too much PlayStation. Sometimes it was helpful though, sometimes his mind would highlight where he needed to go or where the best option was. It wasn't like he had somehow hacked the system to give him superpowers, he was pretty sure it was the same as seeing something and going oh yeah that can be used to do so and so. Except it would highlight it in his vision. Far far too much professor Layton.

He jumps towards the centre of the tree trying to stay as close to the start of the branches as possible; they move less there. Swinging up through the tree he eventually makes it to the top. The tree has stopped moving so much now, maybe that's something he should be worried about but he doesn't care. He made it to the top first.

_Suck it green_

A moment later green swings up onto the top branch, wearing his signature scowl. Red doesn't mind, his world is happy, the green colours of the trees bright and vibrant, the snow looking slightly silver in the moonlight.

"I won."

"Shut up.

"You're a sore loser who would have guessed?"

"And you're an arrogant winner."

"You're just cranky because you can't climb trees as well as me."

"Shut up I bet they train you in the muggle world for this kind of bullshit."

"Yes actually, at age five they leave us at the base of the tallest tree and if we can't get up it and then back down again we aren't allowed back into the village."

"You're lying."

"No I'm not, they often make quite a big deal of it, there'll be bets going around on who makes it, who doesn't and who'll be the fastest. They're not supposed to, but most people ignore that."

"That seems barbaric and unrealistic." Green tells red. "what happens to the ones who don't make it?"

"They're left at the top of my everest and if they can survive and make it back they're allowed in. Most aren't seen again afterwards but a few make it back. I hear its haunted by the souls of all of the children who can't find their way back."

"Huh, you made all of that up just now didn't you?"

"Yup, what clicked?"

"There's no way they'd waste that much energy to drop the losers off at my everest."

"Damn, I'll try harder next time."

"You'd better, that one was pretty weak."

"We should probably get off of this tree before it kills us shouldn't we." 

"Yeah I'm pretty sure that its waiting for us to try climb down so it can get us."

"Well, time to disappoint it, last one down is a rotten egg!"

  
"That makes no sense!" Green shouts after red but he's long gone, jumping branch to branch down the tree.

After an hour or so of wandering they eventually find a spot that Green deems relatively safe to settle down for the remainder of the night. Red, of course, wants a campfire.

"If you're cold I can just cast a warming spell for you."

"Yes I'm cold, but that's not the point!"

"Is the point to attract everything in the forest to us?"

"Look, if you're camping out you just have to have a campfire, its the rule!"

"That seems like a stupid rule."

But if we can't have a campfire then what the hell did I sneak out the marshmallows for?"

"We were seeking out of the school and onto one of the most dangerous parts of the grounds around it and you were bothered about getting snacks to take with us?"

"They're for making smores!"

"What the hell is a smore?"

"You've never had a smore?!"

"No is it some kind of muggle thing?"

"I thought it was something everybody did."

Green sighs. Lighting a fire is dangerous, not to mention pointless, but...

"Fine, if you want one so badly we can have one." Green raised his wand.

"Wait, no magic. This has to be done properly." Red started pulling out some bits and pieces from his bag.

"Come on, let's get some firewood."

"Red."

"Please?"

"I'm going to kill you for this later."

It doesn't take long to gather the wood they need and soon they have a neatly stacked pile of firewood and red is kneeling by it trying to light a match. After striking it a few times it finally catches and he tosses it onto the pile. It splutters out.

"I don't think you can just toss it on like that, they're wet from the snow."

"But they do it all the times in TV shows!"

"Well maybe those people were using magic."

Red glowers at him, but this time when he manages to light one he holds it close to the wood and waits for it to catch. It works this time, and with a little coaxing from Green it grows into a full fire. Green casts a spell to stop anything else from noticing it and then Red gets back to his food store.

"Right so here's what you do." Red explains how making smores works and even though Green shoots him a few weird looks he eventually sighs and nods his head.

Greens first marshmallow falls straight into the fire.

His second gets stuck on the stick and he tosses it in out of frustration.

Red laughs and offers help, but Green just scowls and ignores him

On his third attempt he manages to wedge it in between the two biscuits. He let's out a whoop of joy and red laughs again, already munching away at his second one. (He'd dropped one while laughing at Green)

Red probably should have warned Green just how hot it would be. But live and learn right? So as Green shoved the entire smore into his mouth Red kept his own mouth firmly shut.

"HUCKHACKSHOC. (Fuck that's hot)" Green shouts. "ANGICKSCUCK (and it's stuck)"

Red probably should also have mentioned how sticky melted marshmallows are.

Currently however he's much too busy laughing his ass off. Green grabs at a bottle of water and chugs it. Once its entirely drained he glowers at Red, who for his part, was still sobering up.

"Sorry, that was just too good to pass up," Red practically weeps.

"I hate you."

"Aww come on, I thought we were bonding.

"Shut up."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading if you liked it please leave kudos or comment I love each and every person who reads this thank you so much see you next time :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, it's another update to make up for the hella long unexpected hiatus i took last time once again sorry about that, hope you enjoy :)

So maybe hiding out in the forbidden forest the night before an exam wasn’t a great idea. Maybe they should have just said “let’s do this tomorrow night.” Maybe they should have crawled in a little earlier and tried to get an hour or so of sleep. Maybe tipping a monster ripper into his coffee instead of water wasn’t the best solution. Maybe someone should have stopped him. Okay, maybe Gold should have tried _harder_ to stop him. Maybe he should have just faked a stomach ache and gone to the nurse. But no, it wasn't just his potions test, it was Green's test as well and maybe he would have been okay with getting a fail by himself, but there was no way he was going to let Green down, not when Green needed him.

so ignoring the tired colours and dreary blues and dulled greys he makes himself up a normal coffee and heads down to the potions class. Only walking into a few doors on the way. If anything it's an improvement on his usual.

Red gets to the class relatively on time, and as he takes his place behind his and Green's table the caffeine begins to kick in. 

"You two look like hell," Silver comments smirking at them.

"Fuck right the fuck off."

"Whoa, I didn't even know you could swear pretty boy," Gold chimes in, giving Red a surprised look.

"You think I'm pretty?"

"Of course." Gold throws a wink at Red and Silver rolls his eyes, dragging  Gold bck around to face the desk.

The teacher loudly clears their throat at the front of the classroom. "If everyone will kindly end their conversations then we will start the test. instructions shall be on the board and anything that you might need is in the cupboard. The test starts now." the teacher taps their wand on the board and writing floods across it, taking Red a moment to adjust.

"Amortentia potion, I fucking knew it." Green mutters under his breath "If I get some ingredients can you start chopping them?" Red nods and Green shoots off towards the front of the class leaving Red with nothing to do but twiddle his thumbs.

a moment later Green comes back, nattering away about something or other. 

"Sorry, what were you saying?" 

Green rolls his eyes. "I was just thinking that the real pain is going to be making sure tht the first ingredients don't burn, I hear they have a tendancy to stick to the pot."

Red thinks for a moment, but Green's already moved on, probably assuming that Red isn't actually going to offer up a solution.

"Wait a minute I have an idea," Red says and then dashes off towards the front of the class where most of students have already got their ingredients and are now headed in the opposite direction. getting to the cupboard Red rummages around for a while and then lets out a cry of success and dashes back to the table his trophy clutched in his hand.

"Oil?" Green looks dubious.

"Yeah, like in cooking! and it doesn't have any magical properties so it shouldn't affect the recipe in any way!" Green was going to just use a non stick spell, but Red did have  a point about the magic bit. It was the same reason you didn't make a spell that would make potions for you, any magic used that wasn't a part of the actual potion making process, and those were pretty rare, tended to mess with the workings of the potion itself.

So Green just shrugs. "I guess you have a point, if this goes wrong I'm blaming you." tipping in some oil Green smears it around the pot while Red starts chopping up the ingredients. Red is actually pretty good at cutting stuff up. if Green was to be honest he was possibly better than Green at it. but only marginally.

Soon enough their cauldron is bubbling away happily, the oil doesn't seem to have had any effect o it, but the ingredients hadn't burnt and that had to be a good thing.

Red glances up at the clock nervously. They're half an hour into the test. That's half their time. What if they don't finish in time? No, Green said they were almost done. What if they're finishing too early, what if they missed a step? His vision is red and edgy. He feels vaguely like he's going to throw up. Red never has been good in exam situations. He glances over at Green. Over there the colours are calmer, Green himself is calmer. Focused. Red tries to use some of that energy. Focus himself on the task at hand. Stay calm. He takes deep breaths. Green looks up at him whilst he's still staring. Shit.

"Are you okay?" Green asks him. Red stumbles. He had been expecting some smart ass remark. This was... different. "You look pale."

"Errm, yeah. I mean i'm fine. I just don't do so good in exam situations."

"It's just first year, it's not like it's OWLS, and besides even if you're shit I'm your partner, there's no way I'd let you get me a fail in this class."

Red smiles. He's not sure why Green's being so nice to him, or if it's a trap of some kind. But he doesn't mind. It's a change that for once, isn't so bad.

 

 

Green's not sure why he's being so nice to Red. When he had first caught him staring at him he had planned to make a wise ass remark, but he had looked so... so nervous. Green remembered that feeling. he knew that feeling. he had spent the first few weeks at hogwarts in a perpetual state of that feeling, at first about his house colours and then about what everyone thought of him, and then when he thought that red would leave him for some other friend group. taking the piss out of red wasn't going to help. He might pick on him but he wasn't a complete asshole. He hoped not anyway

The potion is almost done it just needs to sit for a few more minutes. turning his back to the rest of the class Green hauls himself up onto to the desk a moment later Red joins him. They sit there like that a while, legs swinging and Red occasionally glancing to the side to check if it's done yet. On several occasions Green has to physically grab Red's hand to stop him from stirring it.

"But it's getting that weird scum on the top!"

"That's a good thing in potions, that's it pulling all the excess to the top, we'll be able to scrape it off and the potion itself will be stronger." Green reminds him gently. Red reluctantly leaves the spoon alone and instead just stares at it.

"Why do we use wooden spoons?"

"What other kind would we use?"

"Idk at home we have silicone spoons because the wooden ones absorb the water and that makes hem hard to clean and hard to dry."

"That seems to me like a weird muggle thing."

"Why is the wizard world so against things that make life easier?"

"Bring me some of your weird muggle spoons and we'll use those." Green concedes. 

"Awesome, I can't wait until I introduce you to pens."

"Pens?"

"They're like quills only a million times better."

"Whatever you say."

At about fifteen minutes left Green starts scooping the scum out with an instrument hat seemed far too complicated for it's job. A sieve would work just as well. With ten minutes to spare he bottles some up and puts it to a side.

"What does the amortentia smell like to you Green?"

"The rotting bodies of my enemies after i've decapitated them and put their heads on spikes."

"Can't you ever give a serious answer?"

"I am entirely serious, why what does yours smell like?"

"Freshly mown grass after a storm."

"That's so lame."

before Red can shoot back a reply an alarm rings through the classroom and the writing disappears off of the board. There are some groans of depression and sighs of frustration around the classroom as everyone puts their spoons and instruments down.

Green smiles smugly at Red as the teacher comes to their desk, nods at their mixture takes their sample and leaves. 

As they leave the classroom they hear people discussing what it smelt like to them. Green doesn't join in these conversations. Not when his smelled so much llike popcorn and pizza as they watch bad movies and snowmen competitions and carniverous tree climbing in the middle of winter. Not when it reminded him so much of the happy family he had never had. Because if he let himself believe in that, if he let himself get comfortable he knew he wouldn't be able to carry on when it was all torn away from him. He wouldn't leave himself that vulnerable. He couldn't. Not to anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow that ended up angstier than anticipated at the end. oops. oh well. anyway hank you to each and every one of you for reading this far i love everyone who takes time to read this and if you enjoyed it please leave kudos or a comment and i hope to see you soon, but for now i need SLEEP!  
> and hey, you're beautiful


	8. hiss hiss mother fucker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so i did a sort of chamber of secrets kind of thing, but completely different. also introducing a new character yay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey so i really enjoyed this chapter, been wanting to write yellow for a while now, she should get a follow up in a couple chapters, so anyway I'd like to dedicate this chapter to synesthesia for the lovely comments and i really hope you like this chapter, as always thanks for clicking on my story

The halls of Hogwarts are painted green for Yellow, the tranquillity of her mind leaking out through her eyesight. They’re the peaceful hues of a forest, one much like the one she grew up beside. Yellow has loved that forest since before she properly knew how to love something. Yellow still isn’t entirely convinced she knows how to love in the same way everyone else does. But with the forest she knows, she knows that she’s at her happiest amongst the soft heather and the earthy browns of the forest.

As Yellow runs one hand along the walls she uses the other to stifle a yawn. She’s so _tired._ Yellow is just debating heading back to Hufflepuff for a nap when something cold and scaly brushes against her leg. Yellow lets out a screech so loud that the paintings across the hall wince. Yellow looks down and sees a snake curling around her feet, unperturbed by all the noise she was making.

 _“Oh, it’s just you Sal,”_ Yellow slides down the wall onto the floor with a sigh of relief. _“What’s up?”_ Sal wiggles her tail and jerks her head in a _“follow me”_ kind of way. Yellow shrugs to herself. _Why not?_

After a while of walking Yellow realises that she doesn’t recognise the part of the school that she’s in. Not too surprising she supposes, Yellow hadn’t really had much of a chance to explore the school. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to explore, more that she had never had much of a chance to. And when Yellow did have the time she wasn’t in the mood, choosing instead to stick to the parts of the school that she knew. Safe, familiar. Still, now is as good a time as any she supposes.

Eventually Sal stops in front of a seemingly ordinary wall. Yellow waits a moment to see if Sal’s going to move on, but Sal just twists herself around Yellow’s legs, as if trying to pull her in the direction of the wall. Yellow takes a step towards the wall and traces her fingers over the bricks. Nothing out of place, nothing unusual. Unless…

Yellow thinks back to a few years before when her family had taken her to see a muggle movie, an education they’d said. In the movie there had been a bookshelf that would swing open to reveal a hidden room if you pulled on the right book. For days after seeing that film Yellow had tried to replicate the scene using magic, but Yellow hadn’t even gotten her wand yet, and wasn’t very good at magic, so the most she could do was make a few books fly off the shelves. But maybe, maybe this wall was like that bookshelf. Yellow examines the wall, trying to see if there’s anything out of place until a pipe sticking out of the brickwork catches her eye.

The pipe has no obvious reason to be there, it looks like no water has flowed through it for a long time, and surely if it’s out of use they would have removed it. Why haven’t they then? It has to be the key to opening this wall. Yellow yanks on the pipe as hard as she dares. It doesn’t budge. She tries harder. Nothing. _Maybe I have to push it_. Still nothing happens. Yellow tries to move the pipe in every direction conceivable, putting all of her weight behind it, which isn’t much, but still. The pipe stays firmly in the same position as it started. Yellow falls back into a sitting position on the floor with a sigh of defeat. Maybe she’d been wrong about the pipe. As Yellow sits there Sal crawls into the pipe. _I sure hope she doesn’t expect me to fit in there._ Shuffling closer to the pipe on all fours Yellow once more looks at the pipe. Yellow tries shoving her hand in to see where Sal went, and as she feels around her fingers brush against a strange patch on the inside of the pipe. Pulling her hand out Yellow grabs her wand.

“Lumos,” Yellow whispers, letting the glow illuminate the inside of the pipe. After a moment Yellow finds the weird patch again. It’s an engraving, it looks like a snake. Suddenly Yellow gets an idea.

 _“Open.”_ For a moment nothing happens, and Yellow thinks she’s hit another dead end, but then a quiet rumbling starts and she looks up to see the bricks in the wall re-arranging themselves to form a door. For a moment Yellow forgets to breath.

Yellow reaches out her hand, but before she can even touch the bricks the door swings open by itself. A shiver runs down Yellow’s spine and her vision tinges orange. Not from the cold. _Excitement._

Yellow lets her wand relight itself as she holds it up, then sends the ball of light higher, lets it grow bigger and lead the way. She hears the door swing shut behind her. She puts away her wand and runs her hand over the walls as she walks. The walls are engraved with hundreds, if not thousands of pictures. It looks like they’re telling a story, Yellow just can’t figure out what it is. Soon the tunnel leads into a room.

Yellow sends her ball of light to the centre of the room, high as she can without losing it, the room is still somewhat in shade, but she can make out a rough shape of the room. It’s circular with a few tunnels leading out of it, the one that draws her eye most is a staircase leading down, so she heads over to it. As she’s about to step down the first step she sees a pair of eyes blinking at her.

Yellow claps a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming out loud, her ball of light rushing to her side.

_“Goddamn it Sal, you need to stop jumping out on me like that!”_

Sal just gives her the snake equivalent of a shrug and moves on down the stairs. The staircase is long and winding, but eventually Yellow reaches the bottom. As she walks yellow could swear she hears something above her. Was that the Slytherin common room? How far down was she? They were saying something about… dinner. _Bother_ , she’d forgotten about that. Dashing back up the stairs Yellow retraces her steps until she gets to the door she started at. Pressing her ear up against it she waits until she’s sure that nobody’s on the other side and lets herself out. Once outside of the passage she sees the bricks rearrange themselves until it’s once more a seemingly ordinary wall. _Holy hell that was cool._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yes, i realise that that's not how the chamber of secrets works, I'm also pretty sure i got the room of reqirement wrong but it's what I'm going with, so thanks for reading and if you liked it please leave kudos and/or comments   
> and hey, you're beautiful


	9. So just how badly did you fuck up?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW it has been fucking 5ever since I posted. (yes I use that phrase, don't judge me) I am so sorry, but... I'm going to start on the next one as soon as I post this, and then Ima post the one that comes after that (Which I've already written) straight away. and then Ima work on my klance fic. but wait... good news again! this month is camp nano write! and I have put myself down to work on this pic, so hopefully you should be getting regular updates! Either that of Ima write real shitty stuff, not post it and the edit once the month is over, but that means that in august you would be getting a load of updates, so hey, you got those to look forward to. for now though, I hope you enjoy the chapter :)

"You know, to the dinosaurs we live in a post apocalyptic dystopian future."

"Red."

q"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"You just don't want to accept the truth Greeeennn." Red drags out the name, liking the way it sounds in his mouth.

"And you're just sleep deprived, honestly I thought you'd be asleep by now."

"Such are the wonders of caffeine."

"Caffeine?"

"You know, _caffeine_!"

"Believe me if I knew I wouldn't be asking."

"What the hell is wrong with wizards."

"Wizards? What the hell is wrong with you guys, and what the hell is caffeine?"

"Well in the muggle world it's a thing that we take to keep us awake.

"What like a drug?"

"No! Wait how are _you_ still awake if you don't have caffeine? Are you on drugs?"

"I took a nap in history."

"Dude, what aliens replaced your straight-A ass"

"I learnt all that stuff like three years ago."

"How would you know what he taught, you were asleep."

"Do you know what he taught?"

"Yeah actually, we learnt about the great Emu War of 1932."

"The Great...Emu...War."

"Yep, it was in Australia, they lost."

"Well of course they did, they're just birds."

"Oh, no no no, the Australian army lost."

"You're just making shit up now."

"Nope, there were only like 12 casualties on the emu's side, and we had machine guns."

"I am not falling for this, if you want to lie at least make up something believable."

"What are you guys talking about?" Red looks up, it's Gold.

"The Great Emu War," Red replies nonchalantly.

"Oh, awesome, I love that one, my grandparents used to tell me about it all the time. I can't believe we lost even with machine guns."

Red shoots Green a smug _I told you so_ smile and green looks straight back at him with dead eyes.

"Am i missing part of this conversation or something?" Gold asks, glancing from one of them to the other.

"Green didn't believe me about the Emu war."

"What, did you fall asleep in that history class or something?"

Green slumps down in his seat for an opimal position to bang his head on the table. the librarian glares over at them and Red smiles apologetically over at her before turning to grab Green's arm and tell him to be quieter.

"What are you guys doing in here anyway?" Gold asks, sliding into a seat across from them.

"Hiding," Red replies

"From?"

"Blue." They both reply at the same time.

"Why?"

Green sighs. "It's kind of a long story."

"So you're in a library, hiding from a Ravenclaw. Can anyone else see the flaw in this plan?"

Green tells Gold to shut up in an extremely creative way

"So who are you hiding from anyway?" Red asks, propping his head up as he watches his colours spin and blur and fade and come into focus again.

"What do you mean?" Gold replies, a bit too sharply.

"Well you are hardly a library kind of person, and you seemed kind of flustered coming in."

"Silver," he tells them, slumping into a seat.

"What did you do?" Red asks, propping his head up on one hand

"Who says I did anything?"

"Only the guilty run," Green chimes in.

"Or innocent people who are afraid of being murdered!"

"And?" Red leans in.

"I might have done something incredibly stupid."

Green raises an eyebrow at Gold.

"So what did you do?" Red repeats

"I can't tell you."

"Well that's vague and mildly ominous," Green says, pulling a face and leaning back in his seat.

"Hey Red, can I talk to you a minute?" Gold looks pleading

"Okay?"

"No, I mean elsewhere," Gold looks slightly guilty and glances off to the side.

"Oh, erm yeah, sure." Red looks at Green, "I'll be right back."

Green for his part just shrugs and starts fiddling with his wand

They find an unoccupied part of the library and Gold starts talking to Red in hushed tones.

"I need your help," Gold burts.

"Why couldn't you talk about it in front of Green?"

"look, it's complicated, I'll get there, but..."

"What?"

"You have to promise me you'll keep this a secret, this entire conversation, the fact that we ever had this conversation."

"Okaaay?"

"Promise me."

"Alright, I promise, now will you tell me?"

"Okay, Silver told me something, and I said something stupid, what should I do?"

"Can you get any more specific?"

"Er so he told me something-"

"You said that."

"And, I didn't know what to say to it."

"So you blurted out the first thing you thought of."

"Yeah..."

"okay, and just for clarification, why couldn't we have this conversation in front of Green?"

"Because, Silver and Green are close aren't they?"

"And?"

"I don't know if he knows, and if he doesn't I don't want him to know Silver's hiding something from him."

"And Green's really bad at being subtle."

"Exactly, now what should I do?"

"Well does what he told you change anything between you guys?"

"Well no he's still the same person, and it's not that I like him anything less because of it, and it's just that I said something stupid, and it came out wrong and I didn't mean it like that and-" Gold cuts himself off and pushes his hair out of his face (not that it stays there) "I'm rambling aren't I?"

"I don't think I'm the person you should be talking to about this."

"Who else am I supposed to speak to?"

"Silver?"

Gold glowers at Red.

"I'm serious Gold, you should just talk to him about it, there's not going to be one fix all sentence, ad the longer you leave it the worse it's going to get."

Gold groans and slumps against a wall, "I'm not good at that kind of stuff though. No boy is, why are you?"

"Hey, every guy should be at least trying. Also I had three sisters."

Gold stands up and dusts himself off, "thanks Red, I guess I should go speak to Silver then."

Red grins at him, "any time."

"Oh, and I feel like I should tell you, Blue knows that you're hiding in here, she plans on using it against you at some point."

Red winces. "Thanks, we'll deal with that later."

Gold walks off and Red goes back to where he left Green. Only one issue; Green isn't there anymore. Red sighs and walks away from the desk to go find him.

Red finds Green about twenty minutes later (it's a big library) hiding behind a stack of books, he might not have spotted him were it not for that telltale glow around him, shining through the books. It's odd, right now it seems slightly dulled, as though he were tired. Strange, Red didn't feel tired, not with all the caffeine pumping through him, and even if he did his feelings never seemed to affect Green's glow before.

Behind the book stack Green sits curled up on the floor with a book, crammed into a corner. He isn't really expecting anyone to find him. The books pages are dulled, like the rest of the world, the colour leeched out of them. He's upset, he realises. It's strange, he's not sure why. It's not like he's attached to Red or anything. And Red probably didn't mean to, he probably just got wrapped up in talking to Gold and forgot about Green, which is fine. But he wasn't going to wait around for someone who probably wasn't coming back. Not this time. So he's not surpised, or upset. Definitely not. What he is surprised by however is Red's head appearing around the corner of the bookshelf.

"Hey, I found you! Sorry that took so long."

"You came back." Green blinks at Red, his mind still processing this information.

"Of course I did." Red seems as surprised as Green. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I thought you got bored, or distracted."

"Why would I be bored? Even if I was, leaving without saying anything would just be rude." Red settles in next to Green and rests his head on his shoulder. Behind the book Green smiles in a way he hasn't smiled for a long time.

"Yeah, it would be."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, me again! I hope you enjoyed that, stay tuned for the next update and please comment or leave kudos, they mean the world to me and if you have any input on the story I would love to hear it. you may have realised I have shifted slightly in my writing style, sorry about that I'm sorta still getting comfy with my style and figuring out how I like it, so there may be more of that, but as we get further in it should get more consistent ANYWAY find if you want to message me or talk to me about anything my Tumblr is hao-aceakura, my personal Insta is imacenotaplant (Spot the recurring theme) and my art Insta is artofthemango. I don't post much, but I'm working to change that anyway, have a nice day and hey,   
> you're beautiful.


	10. am I supposed to fix things in this chapter? hmmm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here is the chapter I promised you, enjoy it. the next one shall be posted in a few minutes.

Silver sits curled up under a table, trying to block out the rest of the world. He wishes he had those… What does red call them? Headphones? Yeah, that's it. He wishes he had one of those, so he wouldn’t have to sit in this silence. Alone with his thoughts. Alone… 

“SILVER!,” Silver’s head jerks up, hitting against the table. Silver curses under his breath, but not quietly enough. Gold, stood in the hallway turns his head to face him. 

“Silver! I found you!” Gold runs into the room, panting as if he just ran a marathon. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” 

“Why?” Silver looks down at the floor I between his legs, not trusting himself to look good in the eye. Not that he really needed to worry about that, in front of him gold’s eyes were darting from one place to another, the bookshelves lining the walls, the scrolls lying open on a desk, the legs of the table silver was underneath. _Why was he hiding under a table?_  

“Will you come out from under there? Please.” Gold chews his lip, staring steadily at the leg of the table. Silver pulls in his legs, retreating further into himself. 

“No.” 

Gold opens his mouth as if he’s going to protest, but then thinks better of it. He stands there for a moment, unsure of what to do. After a few seconds of awkward silence gold climbs under the table with silver.  

“What are you doing?”  

“Well, you didn’t want to come out, so I figured… anyway, move over I can't fit properly.” 

Silver rolls his eyes, but he moves over anyway, still not making eye contact with Gold. 

“Look, Silver, abut earlier…” 

“You don’t have to still talk to me you know. It’s not like I was expecting you to be fine with it. You made yourself perfectly clear the last time we spoke.” Gold swallows. This is harder going to be harder than he thought. 

“Silver, I-“ 

“Seriously, just leave it. I don’t need you to pretend for me.” 

“Silver will you just shut up for five minute while I apologise!” Gold snaps. “I know you’re mad, and you have every right to be, but can you at least listen to what I’m trying to tell you before deciding whether or not to cut me loose?” Gold holds his breath, unsure if he had fucked things up again before he even had a chance to begin apologising for the first time. But silver doesn't ‘t say anything, so gold takes it as an invitation to start talking again. 

“I fucked up. I’m sorry, What I said… I didn’t mean for it to come across like that, I Just… I’m not very good with words, and when you told me that, I just… I panicked. You were telling me… You were telling me something personal, and I didn’t know how to react. So yes I freaked out, but not for the reasons you think. I mean it’s not like this means there’s anything wrong with you, it’s just how you are. And it doesn't change anything about you, you’re still the same person you were yesterday. And it’s cool. I mean, I’m cool. I mean-“ Gold sighs. “I’m cool with it, it’s okay. That’s what I’m trying to say. Not that's it's something you need confirmation from me foe, you're allowed to be who you are. And, norm- hey? Are you listening to me?” 

Silver is curled up fully into a ball, with his head between his head. Gold nudges him, slightly worried. 

“How is there not something wrong with me? This… What I am… It isn’t natural.” Silver raises his head just enough that Gold can see his face. Something catches in gold’s throat looking at him. Silver’s words don’t sound like his own. Somewhere in gold he feels something burning. Who? Who told Silver that? Who let him believe that there as anything wrong with him? Who… Gold swallows, pushing down his anger. He remembered when Silver told him that he didn’t want to go home for Christmas, he had wondered what could possibly be so bad that he didn’t want to see his own family at Christmas. Now… Now he thought he might have some idea. 

“Why?… Of course there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re as natural as I am.”  

Silver looks up at Gold, making eye contact with gold for the first time in this entire conversation. 

“I…” Silver starts, but then he tops, unsure of what to say to that. 

“So… You never answered me about coming over to my house for the Christmas holidays,”  

 

Gold says, biting his lip and pushing his hair out of his face. 

“You, you’re still okay with that, after what I told you?” Silver looks up at Gold, his eyes wide and mouth slightly open. Gold’s heart breaks a little. 

“Of course I am, I told you, you’re still the same silver you were when I asked you to come to my house the first time.” 

Silver goes quiet again. 

“You still haven’t answered me you know…” Gold trails off, looking to one side. 

“Yeah.” Silver pokes at one of his boots. 

“Huh?” Gold turns his head to look at silver in a rush, banging it on the table as he does. Silver smiles. 

“Yes, I would like to come to your house for Christmas.” 

“Awesome! It’ll be fun!” 

“Yeah…” 

“”One question though…” 

Silver raises an eyebrow. 

“Why are we sat under a table?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and hey,  
> you're beautiful.


	11. hey, look who's back!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, okay so this chapter turned out pretty terrible, don't say I didn't warn you.

Yellow lay across a sofa in the Hufflepuff common room on her back, she had gotten out of class only maybe half an hour ago, and she felt exhausted. It might be that she’d had defence against the dark arts last, and she wasn’t very good at that class, she never really wanted to hurt anyone with her spells, and she guessed her magic could sense that, so they all came out weak and ineffective. Her teacher just said she needed to put more into it. She didn’t want to argue with her so she would just nod until she left.

She gases up at the ceiling she was tired, so tired. And yet… it would appear her legs didn’t get the memo. She could feel the familiar itch starting up in her legs, she knew if she didn’t move soon it would become unbearable, so pulling herself off of the sofa she stands up and stretches. She sighs as she looks woefully at the cushions. If she sat back down again now she knew the feeling would just return. Grabbing her robe she leaves the common room and goes for a walk around the halls.

She wanders for a while, but it’s not been long since classes ended, and the halls are thick with students chattering and laughing. Yellow is small, and walking on her own with her head down and not making any noise people tended not to notice her, so she was jostled from one side to another.

Not that they were doing it intentionally, there were just a lot of students in this part of the school. Someone bangs in to yellow’s shoulder. Hard. It sends her flying across the corridor and she hits against the wall. Well, most of the students aren’t trying to slam into her anyway. A lot of the students keep walking, Either unbothered by the commotion or just not wanting to get wrapped up in it. Many of the students stop though, waiting to see what happened. Yellow looks up from the floor to see some Gryfindors sneering at her from across the corridor. She swallows. Well no need to wonder who shoved her she supposes. Clambering to her feet she tries to make her way through the halls again without them bothering her further, but no such luck for her. No sooner is she standing than someone shoves her back down again. she looks up to one of the Gryfindors smirking down at her.

“Oh I’m sorry, did the little pixie want to leave? But we’ve barely said hello, surely you could make some time for us, I’m sure whatever imaginary friends you were going to meet can wait.” The words are stupid. They’re not clever, they aren’t even original, and they honestly don’t eve n really hurt yellow. She’s heard them a million times before from playground bullies with just enough intelligence to outwit a baby and the mindset of a baby boomer bigot. But there’s a crowd forming, and yellow was never one for attention, so she keeps her mouth shut and hopes that they’ll go away. But theyu don’t, and no one in the crowd stops them. Here’s the thing about people. When they witness someone attacking someone when they’re on their own, of course they step in to help, no one else is around, so the duty falls to them. But when they’re in a group. One would think that means that help would come quicker. But no one wants to step up to the plate. Everyone thinks it is the other’s responsibility. So no one steps in to help yellow.

“Aww, come one, won’t you speak to us, I would have thought you were at least intelligent enough to know English, I guess we were wrong, perhaps we should speak in our language.” The kids laugh cruelly and start barking at her.

“woof woof, come on, talk to us.” Their spittle flies at her and she wipes it away from her face.

“hey, shove off guys, it’s not his fault if he doesn’t speak bitch as fluently as you do.” Yellow looks up and sees a spikey haired boy pushing his way through the crowd. The gryffindors scowl at him but leave. With them the crowd starts to disperse. The boy stand in front of yellow and offers his hand. Accepting it she pulls herself up off the ground and looks up at him properly for the first time. His hair spikes out everywhere, the solid black a sharp contrast against his pale skin. His eyes are a deep red, flecked with dark brown and black, like a sea of flames. Yellow suddenly becomes aware of the fasct that she is still holding his hand, and suddenly lets go, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks.

“Um, er, thanks for helping me,” she manages to stutter out.

“No problem,” he grins at her and rubs the back of his neck with one hand. “Who were those jerks anyway?”

Yellow just shrugs and looks at the ground.

“Huh, what douches, remind me to punch them if I ever see them again.” He glances over his shoulder at the direction they disappeared to and then back at yellow again. “My name’s red by the way, what about you?”

“Yellow,” she replies automatically.

“Anyway, I’ve gotta go meet up with someone, Do you wanna come with or?...”

“Er, I’m fine, thanks, I’ve gotta be somewhere,” she lies.

“Oh, guess I’d better let you be on your way, tell me if those jocks ever come back so I can beat the crap outta them.”

“Yeah, will do.”

Red walks off and she stands there blinking for a moment, wondering what just happened. Shaking it off she starts walking again, keeping her head low and hoping nobody notices her. She’s not sure where she’s headed until some of the corridors seem almost familiar, and she realises what lies on this route. Her skin crawls with excitement and she walks with more purpose. She gets there pretty quickly, but freezes when she sees someone already there, and she’s not sure why she does it, but instinctively she darts behind a wall. Quickly she mutters a spell so she can see through the wall.

The boy glances around him, looking from side to side to check if anyone is there. She wonders why he feels the need for so much secrecy with whatever he’s about to do. Yellow squints at him, and uses her magic to do the muggle equivalent of zooming in on a screen. She recognises him, she’s sure of it. Running through a list of all the people she knows it suddenly clicks into place, his name is Lance, he’s in her house, but a couple of years above her. Seemingly satisfied that no one is watching Lance turns and says something to the wall, quieter than one would normally speak, but just loud enough for yellow to hear.

_“Open.”_

_Lance is a parcelmouth._ The thought races across her mind, and she draws un a sharp intake of breath, stepping out from behind the wall to see him properly. Lance hears the noise and turns, his eyes wide and panicked. He takes a step back.

“Lance, you-” Yellow begins.

Lance turns and runs.

“Wait! No!” Yellow tries to call after him, but he’s long gone. “You’re like me,” she whispers to the empty hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as I said... anyway Ima go work on my klance fix, if anyone wants to read a short fiction by me, that'd be the one. I hope to finish it soon, but... if you've been keeping up I assume you know how bad I am at posting regularly. oh well until next time.  
> and hey,  
> you're beautiful


	12. what even is this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, kinda a nothing chapter, but I hope you like it :)

"What do you want Red?" Red has been bothering Green for the past five minutes. It started off just poking him and saying his name, but as Green continued to ignore him it escalated into Red rolling across Green's back and making weird pterodactyl noises.

"I'm bored."

"I'd never have guessed." Green's sarcasm however is lost on Red, who just continues complaining.

"Don't you need to pack or something?" He asks, trying to distract him.

"Yeah."

"Why don't you do that?"

"I'm terrible at packing! You remember the cabinet incident!"

Green closes his eyes; it seems like forever ago now. Would Red and him even have spoken if not for that? Probably, Red seems to make it his personal mission to speak to everyone he claps his eyes on. Green probably would have told him to fuck off. He probably also would have left him stranded on the stairs. Maybe Red would have hated him had they met under different circumstances. Then again Green’s not sure Red is actually capable of real hatred. Green opens his eyes.

"Fine, I'll help you pack."

"Really!" Red's eyes light up, and then, "don't you have your own bags to pack though?"

Green shrugs, "My granddad wants me to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas so..."

"Oh, okay then." Red finally rolls off of Green, who stands up and then pulls Red to his feet.

They head off to Gryffindor tower together. Most people have already left for the holidays, and nobody notices the pair slipping in.

Green smiles as he sits in front of Red's cabinet. It's slightly nostalgic now, and he gazes over Red's things. Same old battered red cap, same strange and unmoving photos with pens and pencils mixed with quills lying around on the top, leaking onto pieces of parchment. Green sighs.

"You just can't keep your things tidy can you."

"That's why I need you."

"Alright, what do you need to take with you?"

they sit there, sorting through Red's things for maybe half an hour, Green trying to talk Red out of taking some of the more ridiculous things with him.

"Why did you even bring this with you in the first place?" Green asks as they unearth Red's nerf gun.

"I wasn't sure what to expect, I've never been to boarding school before, let alone a magical one!" Red protests

"What the hell even is this?" Green holds it out in front of him as if it might be something poisonous.

"It's a nerf gun!" Red grabs it out of Green's hands and inspects it. "Man, I forgot I even had this."

"A what now?"

Red groans at Green and rolls his eyes. "Watch this." Red pulls back a part of the gun and then lines it up, aiming at a spot on the wall, then pulls the trigger. It hits the wall with a thump and Green jumps at the noise. Red laughs at him. Green bares his teeth and snatches the gun out of Red's hands. He tries to line it up like Red did and pull the trigger. Nothing happens. Red laughs again and shows him how to use it.

"Here see, you've gotta pull this bit back and then pull the- OW!" this time Green laughs.

"Like that?"

Red rubs at his arm where the nerf bullet hit him. "Yeah, except you're not supposed to be so close. It's cheating."

"That's what losers say," Green shoots back. He looks ridiculously proud of himself for someone who just got a nerf gun to work.

"Yeah, but I bet I can use it better than you," Red says, stealing it back. "Just tell me where to shoot."

"Try shooting one of the lions in the mouth," Green points at one of the many tapestries lining the walls of the room.

Red turns to face it. It's a relatively easy target, if a little far away. He brings the gun up to be level with his eye and looks down the barrel. Take into account the strength of the gun and adjust the angle just so and...  _Thump._  The bullet hits the lion's bottom row of teeth.

He turns to green and grins victoriously.

"Shut up, you barely scraped the mouth, I can do better than that." Green snatches the gun out of Red's hands and copies Red's earlier stance.  _Thump_. The bullet lands in the lions main. Green curses loudly.

"This is stupid." Green throws the gun down onto the bed and crosses his arms. "I know I aimed that at the mouth."

"That's what losers say," Red says, putting on his most suave voice and flipping his hair back.

"That is not what I sound like!" 

"That is exactly what you sound like."

"And I have never flicked my hair like that!"

"You did it not two minutes ago."

"I did not!"

"Is that a nerf gun?"

Green and Red both turn to face whoever was interrupting their argument. Gold is stood in the doorway

"I thought you left?"

"What are you doing still here?"

"Nice to see you guys too," Gold rolls his eyes. "We're leaving soon, thought I'd swing by and see if anyone was up here."

"We?" Green raises an eyebrow at the other boy.

"Oh yeah, Silver's coming round my house for the holidays," Gold tries to say it nonchalantly, but Red's sure he can see a faint smile creeping onto his face. "Anyway, enough about me, can we get back to my initial question?"

Red pauses for a moment, and you can almost see the little gears clicking away in his head as he rewinds through the conversation.

"Oh yeah, the nerf gun!" Red reaches across the bed and grabs the gun, holding it out to Gold.

“So why exactly did you bring one of these to Hogwarts?” Gold asks, fiddling around with it.

“I don’t know!” Red holds up his hands in exasperation. “It seemed like a good idea at the time!”

“I’m sure that sentence applies to a _lot_ of things under your bed Red.”

“Oh, shut up Green, I’m sure you’ve got loads of junk in your house.”

“Difference is, I didn’t bring mine to school with me.”

“I’ve been trying to talk him out of exactly how much of this stuff is important enough to take with him,” Green explains to Gold.

“I had a similar discussion with my mum when I was packing for Hogwarts,” Gold says, nodding. “Wait, you’re going home for the holidays right?”

“Yes?”

“Wouldn’t it be a better idea to take all the stuff you don’t need home now so that you don’t have to take it all home when it comes to summer?”

“But what if I need it later this year?” Red says

“There is such a thing as a bin.” Green says at the same time.

“We are not binning my stuff!” Red gasps, horrified. Green just shrugs.

“Worth a shot.”

“You’re a bully, I’m taking Gold’s suggestion.”

“Just trying to help.”

“GOLD!” the shout sounds like it comes from outside. Gold sticks his head out of the window.

“I’LL BE DOWN IN A MINUTE!” he shouts back, and Red winces from the noise.

“Do you really have to shout that loud?” Red rubs his ears.

“That was Silver,” Gold says, ignoring Red’s question. “I gotta go, bye!” Gold darts out of the room, the door slamming shut behind him.

Green sighs and shakes his head, “Well he never changes. Come on, let’s finish packing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked that, next few chapters will be the Christmas holidays, I think ill spend a chapter with each character, maybe less depending on if characters are together (looking at you two gold and silver)  
> the very next one will be Yellow because I love her so much and can't wait to get back to her, see you guys then I would love it if you leave kudos or comments (Honestly just spam me, I really love hearing back from you guys)  
> and hey,  
> you're beautiful


	13. awkward, just so much awkward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i cba to do notes tbh, so here. just enjoy this chapter for now

Yellow sighs. She has long since given up calling Lance’s name. If he’s hiding from her it’s not like he’s going to answer. Then again if he’s hiding from her she shouldn’t be looking for him.

But… this time, this time Yellow wants to be selfish, she wants to have this one thing. She wants to know.

Yellow spoke to Lance’s friends, Agatha, lorielli and Bruce, they hadn’t known where he was either. Apparently he did this sometimes, so at least it wasn’t new. Yellow sighs, maybe she should give in. Lance couldn’t stay wherever he was hiding forever, when he’s ready he’ll come out and she can talk to him then. Probably. Yellow sighs and rubs her eyes, she’s tired, and sleep will help. It’ll be easier to think when she’s more awake. But she’s too stressed for sleep to be an option, so she might as well go for the next best thing. Yellow heads down to the kitchens. Whilst strictly speaking she shouldn’t go to the kitchens, the house elves know her there. They don’t mind, sometimes they’ll bring her food, most the time they leave her to wander around and scavenge for scraps.

As she enters the kitchens the house elves don’t bother her, just go about their business as usual, a few nod at her, but that’s it. To be honest that’s how she likes it, as dramatic and anti- social as it seems.

Yellow sighs and pulls open a cupboard, she needs to stop thinking about things so much. She sticks her hand in to grasp at whatever’s inside and hits something warm. _What the heck?_ She looks down into the cabinet to see what she hit.

“Lance?”

“Oh, it’s you.”

Lance doesn’t sound particularly happy to see her. Then again he has been hiding from her for two weeks.

“Have you been in here for the whole two weeks?”

“Well, I meant to only be here for one, but then my leg went dead and I figured staying a little longer wouldn’t hurt, but moving most definitely would.” Lance says it with a completely straight face, Yellow can’t tell if he’s joking or not.

“Can I talk to you?” Yellow asks, intertwining her fingers and twiddling her thumbs.

“You are.”

Yellow swallows. Maybe this was a bad idea. She bites her lip and looks down at him. This is awkward. This whole conversation is awkward. She sits down on the floor in an attempt to alleviate some of it.

“You’re a parcelmouth,” she says, unable to find the words to say anything else.

“Obviously.”

“Why did you run away?” Yellow asks, shoving the words out there before she has a chance to wimp out. She has to know.

Lance doesn’t answer.

“Lance?”

“Why did you come find me?”

“I needed to know.” Yellow’s mouth is dry as sh searches for the right words. For any words.

“What? If I was going to kill you all?” Lance sounds angry, hurt. Why would he think that?

 _“I needed to know if you were like me,”_ the words come more easily in parceltongue.

Yellow sees Lance freeze up as she says it, and she wonders if she did something wrong. Again.

Finally he turns to face her, his eyes wide. “You- you can- you’re…” Lance is at as much of a loss for words as Yellow was.

“Yeah,” she says, looking down as she twiddles her thumbs. There’s a moment of awkward silence, so she continues. “I didn’t tell anyone if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ just… I’ve never met another parcelmouth before…”

Lance glances away before speaking, “Yeah, me either.”

“Lance?” Yellow looks up at the boy again

“Yeah?” his eyes glance over hers and then find a spot on her nose to stare at.

“Am I going to have to keep coming down to the kitchens to talk to you or are you coming out of there any time soon?”

Lance turs red. “Oh, right, I’m getting out, just give me a minute.” Lance shifts and sticks his legs out of the door, pulling himself out of the hole. Once he’s out he hits his foot against the floor a few times, wincing as he does so. When he’s done he bends back down and grabs a dozen or so books out of the cupboard he had been sat in. Yellow gives him an odd look and he just raises his eybrows in return.

“What? Accio only works one way. I needed something to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed it,   
> and hey,  
> you're beautiful.


	14. what is a sonic?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *slides chapter in before Christmas five months late and hopes nobody notices*
> 
> okay, so I remember I made a joke about by the time I got around to posting this chapter it would be December, but I swear that was only supposed to be a joke and I am really sorry about that, also this is not a full chapter, this is a sort of part 1 to silver and gold's Christmas because I wanted to post something but sort of hit a writers block (I blame nanowrimo) and anyway it snowed today (like a really proper snowfall) for the first time in years, so this chapter is to celebrate snow not being a lie made up by the government. also I had something important to say but this is getting kind of long as it is so
> 
> !!! IMPORTANT NOTE AT END PLEASE READ !!!

“Are there always so many animals?” Silver steps around the third cat he has encountered crossing the living room of the house.

“Hey, it’s not like I didn’t tell you,” Gold says defensively, still trying to soothe the first cat Silver encountered.

Silver is about to shoot back a not so family friendly retort when Gold’s mother picks that precise moment to walk in.

“Can I get you kids anything?” She looks around the room until she settles her gaze on Gold. “What’s up with Pushkins? She’s normally so friendly.”

“Silver stepped on her tail.”

“It was an accident!”

“He viscously attacked her.”

Whatever Silver is about to say next is lost in Gold’s mother’s laughter. “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll settle down soon,” she reassures them. “Can I get you anything in the meantime?”

Gold waves her off, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll sort out anything we need.”

Gold’s mother nods, smiles, and then vanishes from the doorway. Gold turns to Silver.

“Come on, let’s get you set up in my room.”

 

 

Gold’s room is… something. There are posters everywhere, most of which seem to be about some muggle concept called a radio show. Gold’s bed is _covered_ in stuffed animals. Silver’s colours sharpen for a moment out of confusion. He honestly has no idea where Gold could fit onto it around them, _is he going to pull out some super secret second bed he can actually sleep on?_

Gold seems to catch silver staring.

“yeaaaahhhh, I was _really_ into teddies when I was younger,” Gold explains. “And once I got older they all seemed too sentimental to get rid of, you know?”

Silver doesn’t really know, he never really had sentimental attachments to many things growing up, but he nods his head along anyway. It’s not difficult to just nod along to Gold’s conversations, he holds most of them by himself, so Silver just lets him ramble as they set up an air mattress on the floor.

The mattress blows up quickly, and Silver tries to remind Gold that he isn’t allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts. Gold just laughs and explains that it’s not magic, just muggle technology. But when Silver asks how it works Gold just stutters out something about vacuums and hoovers, until it’s evident that he has no idea what he’s talking about. Silver mentally adds airbeds onto his list of things to ask Blue about when he next sees her.

“What is this?” Silver asks, pulling his attention away from the strange bed. Gold looks up to see Silver squinting at one of his teddies.

“That’s Sonic!”

“What is a sonic?”

“He’s a hedgehog!”

“This is _not_ a hedgehog Gold.”

“Of course he is!”

Silver gives Gold a mildly concerned look, to which he responds with an exaggerated eye roll.

“Have you seriously never played Sonic?” Gold asks incredulously. Silver just shrugs. Gold stares wide eyed for a moment before leaping the airbed and rummaging around in a box under his shelves. A few minutes later he emerges with a strange cube shaped thing and a victorious yelp that makes Silver jump.

“What is that?”

“It’s a game cube! Now come one and help me set up!” Gold looks so excited that Silver doesn’t have the heart to object. For the next few minutes Silver mostly just stands around and tries to look helpful while Gold fiddles around with a bunch of things that Silver doesn’t really understand. Once Gold is done Silver stands around a while longer as Gold pulls a battered plastic case off of a shelf.

“Come on, sit down!” Gold gestures to the airbed and Silver tentatively takes a seat, unsure about the bed’s stability. Although it does sink a bit, the bed seems to hold up under his weight, but he still sits warily. A moment later Gold thumps down beside him, shaking the bed and almost making the other boy fall off of it. Silver glares at him, but Gold just grins. Silver sighs, it’s hard to stay mad at someone when their smile is so damn contagious.

“What fresh nonsense do we have in store today?” Silver asks, trying to cover up the smile rising on his face with a smirk. Gold doesn’t seem to notice.

“It’s not nonsense! It’s sonic2battle!”

“It’s what now?”

“You’ll see.”

Silver sighs, giving up on asking, it hasn’t gotten him any further in the past ten minutes, he doesn’t see it doing him any good now.

Gold drops something into Silver’s lap and he picks it up, then stares at it for a few minutes, confused. “You’re holding it the wrong way round,” Gold’s amused voice cuts through silver’s thoughts. Silver glowers up at him.

“Well how the hell was I supposed to know that?” Silver shoots back indignantly. “You haven’t told me anything.”

Gold just grins at him. Silver continues to pout.

“Here, come on, I’ll teach you the controls.” Gold proceeds to slide in next to Silver, flipping the remote in his hands and pressing a bunch of buttons.

            “I’ve given you first player for the moment,” Gold tells him. “But that’s just so that we can play one player together until you get the hang of it. I’m going to need first player back afterwards though, not only am I very fond of that remote, although I suppose they can be switched, I always feel weird letting someone else be first player on my console, you know?”

Silver didn’t understand a single thing Gold just said.

Gold however seems to take his silence as a yes and launches into another long explanation of how to play the game and what all of the buttons do, until he finally seems to spot the confused look on Silver’s face and decides it will be best for him to learn on the go. They play a few rounds with Silver holding the remote and Gold instructing him.

The first round Silver mainly tries to figure out where and what all of the buttons are. The second round he spends questioning every order Gold gives him. The third round he decides to stop asking questions and just do whatever Gold says. The fifth round he almost doesn’t lose, making for some very creative cursing when he does.

By the ninth round Silver sort of understands what he’s doing.

Once he almost beats the high score on his fifteenth try Gold hurriedly decides that it’s time to switch to two player.

As it turns out they’re on pretty level footing once Silver gets used to playing competitively. (he spends the first few rounds getting his ass kicked much to Gold’s joy)

Whilst Silver may have natural talent for some godforsaken reason, Gold has many, many, _many_ , hours spent perfecting his technique on this game. Silver isn’t sure how long they’ve played for, but it must have been quite a while, because the first time they’re interrupted is by Gold’s mother calling up the stairs to say that dinner’s ready.

            Muggle food is different to wizard food. Silver isn’t really sure what he was expecting, in his house his parents would always tell him that wizards were superior to muggles, and while he didn’t buy into that crap, after a lifetime of hearing it…

            The thing about wizard food is that it’s always prepared with magic. Even if you were to cook it by hand all of the ingredients are still grown by magic, preserved by magic, made for optimal flavour by magic. And magic always left that strange tangy taste in his mouth that he cant quite describe. (Although if Silver is being honest he’s never met a single wizard who did stuff like that by hand unless they were trying to prove a point about how overcomplicated and difficult it is to do things the muggle way. Silver had rightfully pointed out that just because _they_ found it difficult didn’t mean it was. Not that his father had seen it that way. Since then silver has been careful to keep those kinds of thoughts to himself.)

            Muggle food tastes clean, Silver decides. Fresh. New. Simple. His colours go kind of blurry, he supposes it’s the closest visual he can get to his worries melting away. Somewhere in the room someone laughs, shaking Silver out of his thoughts and into the sudden irrational panic that they can somehow hear what he’s thinking.

            “Enjoying your food?” It takes Silver a moment to realise that the question is directed at him. He looks down at his plate and realises he’s devoured almost all of it.

            “Yes, very much, thank you,” Silver smiles at Gold’s mother, trying to remember everything his parents had tried to teach him about acting politely.

            “Would you like seconds, I made too much anyway,” she’s smiling now, her gaze fixed solely on Silver. Silver nods his head vigorously, the colours buzzing excitedly now.

            Gold’s mum takes his plate and doles out a generous second helping which has a puddle of drool forming in Silver’s mouth, he thanks her again and takes the plate.

            “Damn,” Gold comments, “Eat that much and you’ll be giving me a run for my money on how much lasagne I can eat in one sitting.

            Silver isn’t entirely sure what Gold means by that, but he glowers anyway. Always a safe bet.

            They finish dinner, and Gold’s mother sends them on their way.

            “So my mum’s a pretty great cook right!” Gold looks at Silver excitedly, with that same damn contagious smile, and Silver can’t help but smile along.

            “I mean I guess I’m kind of biased, she is my mum and all.” Gold smiles nervously and ruffles his hand through his hair. He’s rambling again. “I’m pretty sure every kid thinks their parents hung the moon, so you know.”

            “Not really.” Silver stares at a spot on the wall.

            “Oh, erm, right. Sorry.” Gold stares at a different spot on the opposite wall.

            “It’s fine.” _I kind of like that you don’t think too much_. “I’ve gotten used to you by now.”

            Gold smiles at Silver. “More sonic2battle?”

            “Definitely more sonic2battle.”

            “Maybe more sonic2battle can be our always.”

            “What?”

            “You’ll get there someday wizard boy.”

 

 

 

            “Why are we putting up a fake tree in your living room?” Silver stares at Gold with one eyebrow raised.

Gold gives him a strange look. “You don’t celebrate Christmas much at your house do you?”

“What gave me away?” Silver rolls his eyes. “My father never really saw the point, it’s not like he was religious.”

“And? Neither am I, Christmas is for family!”

Silver goes back to his one eyebrow raised look.

“Right, yes. Well, since this is your first proper Christmas, you can put the angel on top of the tree.”

“Okay?”

“For full childhood christmas effect I am going to have to lift you up so you can reach the top of the tree.”

“I can reach it just fine on my own.”

“That’s not the point Silver.”

“You know, I’m not sure I really want to do this anymore.”

“It’s not a choice anymore, my mum’s taking pictures. Now help me with this tinsel.”

They wrestle with some more decorations and then with some lights that Silver isn’t really sure about the practicality of and finally Gold declares that it’s time for the tree topper. By now silver’s vision is practically buzzing again.

“Are you sure you’re strong enough to lift me up?”

“You just worry about not losing your balance up there.”

“Whatever.” Silver clambers onto Gold’s back, hooking his legs around The other boy’s shoulders, and steadying himself by putting his hands on Gold’s head.

“Deploying the angel,” Gold tells silver, passing up a bsttered tree topper over his head.

“Just get it over with,” Silver sighs, trying to mask his smile.

Gold straightens up and Silver is level with the tree now. He reaches out slowly, making sure not to loose his balance, Gold would never let him live it down. Once he has placed the angel securely on the tree, where it is in no danger of falling. He grins at it, satisfied. He can hear Gold’s mother’s camera clicking away in the background, but doesn’t pay much attention to it. It’s oddly satisfying, and he’s not entirely sure what to do with the weird feeling in his chest.

“All right, time to get you down.”

“okay, bend doWHOOAAA!”

“TIMBER!” Gold yells, and promptly falls backwards onto a sofa behind them, Silver clinging to him like a monkey.

Gold just laughs, not seeming to particularly care that he is now using Silver as an impromptu pillow.

“Ugh, I hate you,” Silver pushes Gold off of him, the other boy still laughing. Silver wants to glare some more, but Gold’s laughter is contagious too, and he can’t stop the smile from creeping onto his face. That’s been happening a lot lately. Thankfully he’s spared from it going any further by Gold’s mother declaring it time to draw the curtains and turn off the lights.

Practically leaping to his feet Silver pulls the curtains for her, needing something to do with his hands rather than just stand around looking lost like he seemed to spend nost of his time. Curtains at least he understands.

Once Silver is turned back to face them his vision has gone sharp again, and he wonders what’s going to happen next. He tries not to make his curiosity too apparent.

Golds mother hushes them despite them not saying anything at that particular moment, and then procedes to turn off the light with as much flair as you can really muster whilst flipping a switch. Suddenly he can see where Gold gets his dramatic tendancies from

For a moment Silvers suroundings are pitch black, but just as he’s about to ask what’s going on lights flicker into life in front of him, and he hears a sharp intake of breath. A second later he realises it was him.

Ten minutes earlier he hadn’t been sure about the practicality or necessity of the lights, but ten minutes ago him was a fool.

Silver doesn’t know how long he stands there entranced by the lights and the way they flicker and dance across the decorations, a glittery bauble swings and sends a shower of light flitting across the room. Not for the first time that day he questions the notion that muggles can’t use magic.

Eventually someone flicks on the main lights, and while it’s still beautiful, Silver misses the way that the darkness enveloped him and the lights danced through it.

Silver notices gold looking at him with a slight grin on his face. As Gold opens his mouth to say something silver expects him to make fun of him.

“See, I told you that the lights were important.” Gold says

“Well I guess you were right about something for once. Had to happen sometime.” Silver retorts before turning to exit the room. “Come on, I was just about to kick your ass on that game.”

Gold shouts out an absentminded, “I was totally wining that round!” as he follows him up, but honestly he just hopes that Silver didn’t notice how long gold had been staring at him for. Over the past couple days it had become a bad habit he was having increasing amounts of trouble breaking out of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!! IMPORTANT NOTE !!!
> 
> okay, so I realised recently that I have been writing this for almost a year now, and reading back through my older chapters there is a lot of stuff I would like to edit/ change because I am just not happy with it, so I'm going to be re-writing the old chapters
> 
> some of them might remain much the same, maybe just with a few grammatical fixes, depending on how much I like that particular chapter, others might have more drastic changes, but for the most part they will stick to the same base if that makes sense so it isn't necessary that you read the new versions, but I will be taking down the old ones and replacing them, so the revised chapters will have a note at the top saying that they're a rewrite
> 
> anyway, also don't worry this won't affect my posting schedule for new chapters, they will still be being released, what schedule? yeah ha ha well that is a very valid point, but I'm going to try to update this fic monthly from now on, and that will technically be two updates, one of a revised chapter, and one new chapter anyway, this has gotten kind of long and I can't think of anything else I need to say, so I guess that that is all from me, hope you liked the chapter!
> 
> -themaagoo out


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